Taipei Times
Date: Mar 26, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter

While many people take the Republic of China’s (ROC) existence in Taiwan for granted, its inception was actually the outcome of various historical accidents and coincidences, said Lin Hsiao-ting (林孝庭), a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and author of a book on the founding of modern Taiwan.

Lin’s Accidental State: Chiang Kai-shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan (意外的國度：蔣介石、美國、與近代台灣的形塑), which was published in March last year, and its Chinese translation went on sale in Taiwan earlier this month.

Lin delved into official archives in Washington when researching for the book, in which the US’ aversion to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in the 1950s was revealed.

For instance, the US had considered replacing Chiang by covertly supporting former general Sun Liren (孫立人), a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and the Taiwanese independence movement, but the outbreak of the Korean War led to Chiang regaining Washington’s support, which — in addition to the White Terror era — helped him consolidate his control of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime that was nearly overthrown, the book reads.    [FULL  STORY]