Posted on 07/18/2018 9:33:22 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
The Chinese Civil War went very well for the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 and the Nationalists were on the run. After another devastating loss at the city of Xiamen, Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist forces retreated to the island of Taiwan. But the People’s Liberation Army looked unstoppable and Taiwan’s fall seemed inevitable.
The Battle of Kinmen, also known as the Battle of Guningtou, ended those expectations. A combination of too much hubris and too little information conspired to inflict upon the Communist Party its most devastating defeat of the war and set the foundation for the split between China and Taiwan today.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
“and set the foundation for the split between China and Taiwan today.”
Well yes and no.
Taiwan was part of Japan and not part of the Chinese Civil War.
But, because the Chinese occupied Taiwan post-War, it was a place they could retreat to.
Taiwanese got screwed over, having nothing to do with China or the Chinese Civil War.
Did you make this video?
No, I did not make this video.
There is a YouTube channel called Simple History that is rather good.
Not perfect in all aspects but worth watching and an ad click.
Is Taiwan as culturally different from China as Okinawa is from Japan?
A coworker whose ancestry was Okinawan said to not ever refer to him as Japanese.
Anyway, I’ll have to learn more about this battle. I thought the ChiComs didn’t seriously mix it up with ROC/Taiwan until Quemoy & Matsu.
“Is Taiwan as culturally different from China as Okinawa is from Japan?”
Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_indigenous_peoples
Kinmen may be better known as Quemoy, at least to Americans who can remember the Nixon-Kennedy Presidential debates of 1960, when Quemoy and Matsu were among the topics mentioned.
My dad served non the USS John McCain around Quemoy, and said that he heard the screams of hundreds of drowning men as his ship passed them at night, when the commies sank a troop transport ahead of their vessel.
They were ordered not to stop, and they didn’t.
It actually didn’t go back in 1945.
It was Japanese territory occupied by the Allies under China after Japan surrendered.
The Chinese government claimed it was retrocessed, but it wasn’t.
Relevant surrender treaties came years later, after the communist takeover of China, which did not “give Taiwan back”.
“The indigenous population of Taiwan was not Chinese but the Chinese were in a majority when China had to give the island to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.”
Yes, two main Han groups, Minnan, southern Fujian, and Hakka.
The analogy for Taiwan is America. Chinese who moved to Taiwan were like Europeans who moved to America.
Taiwan is culturally Chinese. Maybe more so than China after the communist culture wars.
It is distinct from China, as much as the US and Canada are distinct from the UK and Mexico is from Spain or Quebec from France etc...
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