Island China: A Twentieth Century Fund Study - Couverture rigide

In the 1970s, John K. Fairbank wrote, "The Taiwan issue is the ticking time bomb in U.S. China policy." In this book, Ralph Clough offers a masterly analysis of the Taiwan dilemma set against the background of the islands history, politics, and economic development. Clough begins by tracing the changing attitude of the United States toward Taiwan from disinterest after World War II to deep concern that began with the Korean War and continued until the peace in Vietnam. He then undertakes a thorough description of the island and its people. He discusses Taiwans political structure, the strengths and weaknesses of its society, and the evolving relationship between native Taiwanese and the mainlanders who arrived after 1945. Clough fully examines the complex military situation and the unfinished civil war between the island and the mainland. He discusses, too, the war of diplomacy between the two Chinas, carrying his account into the 1970s and Taiwans expulsion from the U.N. He describes Taiwans fight for survival as an independent state and its efforts to maintain commercial relations, particularly with Japan

Ralph N. Clough was a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. He served as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission in Taipei and as Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs in the State Department.