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The relationship between Taiwan and China is one of the most tenuous and dangerous in the modern world. With China on the one side considering that Taiwan is an integral part of their country and the Taiwanese people on the other split between those who seek reunification with the mainland and an increasingly vociferous independence party vowing to retain its sovereignty, it is a cauldron waiting to boil over. At present, it appears that the Taiwanese islanders are creeping slowly but inexorably towards total independence. This movement causes Beijing major concern, which more than once it has promised to block by military force if necessary. Thus, it begs the question why does China not invade the country in the same way as it has done with Tibet? To understand this we have to go back in History.

The year is 1949, the occasion of the Chinese revolution. In a war between the communist and nationalist, the former won and the nationalist party (KMT), comprising of around two million men under the command of Chaing Kai-shek, were forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, which China even at that time felt was an integral part of its own territory. However, although the Nationalist refugees also felt that Taiwan was part of Chine, the natives believed in its independence and resentment between the two factions grew to such an extent that Chaing was forced to impose martial law, a condition that lasted for nearly forty years.

The only reason that China did not immediately invade the islands at that time to repossess what they considered their own was because in 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean war, the US sent in the navy to act as a buffer between the two countries. Their fear was that China would use the opportunity to grow its influence in the region. In the sixties, the calls for independence to be granted to the islands increased, but the settled nationalists held onto power, despite the fact that Taiwan was beginning to develop its own separate identity and infrastructure. In the seventies, following America's acceptance of Beijing's "one country" declaration and the United Nations expulsion of the Taipei's government it looked as if the claim for independence movement would finally die. However, it was revived again in the late seventies, and in 1987 LeeTeng-Hui became the first native President of the islands, being re-elected for a further six years in 1990.

During his time in office, Lee cultivated relationships with the west, particularly the US. This proved

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