Retreat of the government of Republic of China to Taiwan

At this time, the U.S. was fighting the Vietnam War. For Project National Glory to be successful Chiang Kai-shek knew he needed US military assistance. Thus he offered to help the Americans fight the Vietnam War in exchange for U.S. support conducive to take back his lost territory. The U.S. opposed and refused Chiang's suggestions.^{[citation needed]} This did not stop him. Rather, Chiang went ahead with the preparations and continued to further his plan to take back their lost territory.^[16]

In 1965, Chiang's plans to strike were completed. His generals and admirals planned possible dates to deploy while soldiers and field officers prepared for battle, according to the government archives.

Chronology

April 1, 1961: The year witnessed the advent of the Project National Glory. The office was built by the

However, the United States Armed Forces and the U.S. Department of Defense, together with the State Department, strongly opposed Project National Glory; rejecting the KMT plan to retake mainland China. Thus, every week American troops checked the inventory of Republic of China Marine Corps amphibious landing vehicles used by ROC and ordered American military advisory group members to fly over the Project National Glory camp on scouting missions. These flyovers infuriated Chiang Kai-shek.

June 17, 1965: Chiang Kai-shek visited the Republic of China Military Academy to convene with all mid level and higher officers to devise and launch the counterattack.

June 24, 1965: A multitude of soldiers^[quantify] died during a training drill to feign a Communist attack on major naval bases in southern Taiwan near Zuoying District. The deaths that occurred during the happening were the first but not the last in Project National Glory.^[14]

August 6, 1965: A

November 1965: Chiang Kai-shek ordered two other naval vessels, the CNS Shan Hai and the CNS Lin Huai to pick up injured soldiers from Taiwan's offshore islands of Magong and Wuqiu. The vessels were attacked by 12 PRC ships, the Lin Huai sunk, and roughly 90 soldiers and sailors were killed in action. Surprised by the heavy loss of life in the naval battle at Magong, Chiang gave up all hope for Project National Glory.

After several unsuccessful feigned invasions between August 1971 and June 1973, in the lead up to the main landings, the 1973 coup which witnessed Nie Rongzhen's rise to power in Beijing^{[clarification needed]} drove Chiang to call off all further false attacks and commence full landing operations. Having said this, according to General Huang Chih-chung, who was an army colonel at the time and part of the planning process, Chiang Kai-shek never completely gave up the desire to recapture China; "even when he died (in 1975), he was still hoping the international situation would change and that the Communists would be wiped out one day."^[14]

Failure and shift of focus to modernization

The failure of Chiang's Project National Glory changed the course of Chinese and Taiwanese history, forever altering

After being expelled from the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek and other KMT leaders realized they had to reform the party.^{[citation needed]}

Initially, the party had seen public schools as a necessary instrument of assimilation and nation-building. Private schools, seen as unwanted competition, were therefore suppressed. However, as education needs on the island began to outstrip government resources, the party reevaluated their approach. Starting in 1954, private schools were not only tolerated, but backed by state funding. Simultaneously, steps were taken to secure the obedience of private schools, such as ensuring the placement of party loyalists on school boards and the passing of strict laws to control the political content of the curricula.^[17]

Legality

While the generally established view is that the KMT legally controlled Taiwan starting from Retrocession Day in 1945 (following the surrender of Japan), some have opposed this view.

According to a 1955 article, "It has been charged that Chiang Kai-shek has no claim to the island because he is 'merely a fugitive quartering his army' there and besides, his is a government in exile."^[18] Moreover, the Treaty of San Francisco, which was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, did not specify to whom Japan was ceding Taiwan and Penghu. Despite this, the ROC was viewed by the vast majority of states at the time as the legitimate representative of China, as it had succeeded the Qing Dynasty, while the PRC was at the time a mostly unrecognized state. Japan was, at the time of the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, still technically under American occupation.^[19] After full independence, Japan established full relations with the ROC and not the PRC.^[20]

According to Professor Gene Hsiao, "since the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the separate KMT treaty with Japan did not specify to whom Japan was ceding Taiwan and the Pescadores, the implication of the U.S. position was that legally, and insofar as the signatories of those two treaties were concerned, Taiwan became an 'ownerless' island and the KMT, by its own assent to the American policy, a foreign government-in-exile."^[21]

See also

• Outline of the Chinese Civil War
• Timeline of the Chinese Civil War
• Xi'an Incident
• Yan Xishan
• Chiang Ching-kuo
• Lee Teng-hui
• Conservatism in Taiwan
• Wu Sing-yung
• Two Chinas
• China and the United Nations
• United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758
• Proclamation of the People's Republic of China

References