Watch the video-friendly edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KXpA6aqxt0

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At the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War (1927 - 1949) in which the Republic of China led by then Chairman Chiang Kai-shek (Chiang Chung-cheng) was along with the remnants of his Nationalist Government and Army defeated and forced during "The Great Retreat" to relocate to the island of Taiwan by the victorious forces of the Chinese Communist Party led by then Chairman Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) and his People's Liberation Army (PLA) which was the paramilitary wing of the CCP (and is now the official army of Modern China). 

The latter would establish itself at the end of the war as the sovereign ruler of mainland China and the former despite ambitions to restore its former territorial holdings, would go on to accept and adapt to its new reality, which to this day has been in defiance to the political prerogatives of Mao and his successors who to this day have been determined to finish off what to them is at most an illegitimate rump state that is from the perspective of policymakers in Beijing as now really nothing more than a "renegade province." 

What initially was under Chiang & his son a continuation of the political system of the mainland ROC (i.e. a de jure unitary parliamentary republic which in practice was de facto an autocratic, military dictatorship) would increasingly go following the end of the latter's tenure as President to develop as an increasingly distinct polity from that of its mainland counterpart with a younger population of native Taiwanese who despite being ethnically of Han stock, due to political & cultural factors, identify as being of their own nation and separate from the Chinese nation-state despite inheriting from Chiang and his ilk the claimed status of being the sovereign of mainland China, which to this day in 2020 has not been reformed or abolished. 

Even though millions of anti-Communist Chinese mainlanders fled along with the ROC and its armed forces in the mid 20th century, the younger generations of Taiwan have been favoring localization of the state and favor a brand of Taiwanese Nationalism which opts for a society more akin to the Western-style democratic states. Despite Taiwan having its own independent government and alternate political system as previously mentioned since 1949 (and never being de jure administered by the PRC), Beijing with its "One China Policy" is in no mood (for reasons I explained in this segment and will expound upon more in the future) to tolerate the existence of an ethnically Han Chinese polity that stands as a viable alternative to the PRC and its rise as one of the preeminent contemporary great powers. 

What further complicates this situation is the United States and its relationship with Taiwan, which much to the chagrin of Beijing, due to the geostrategic location and its history with the ROC, Washington has vowed through informal diplomatic agreements (see: Taiwan Relations Act) to come to the defense of Taipei and has especially under the current Administration of President Trump been increasingly expanding its commercial and military support of Taipei in spite of the constant ire of Beijing. Taiwan which under its current President, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stands in 2020 at a pivotal juncture following the re-election of Tsai in January, who is a staunch advocate of Taiwanese Independence and is collaborating with the Trump Admin. to resist escalating pressure from China to restore control of the island state by any & all means it can muster. What will happen next? 

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