THE POSSIBILITY

1949-1975 CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND TAIWAN

The leader of the KMT, Chiang Kai-shek immediately moved the government to Taiwan where he resumed his duties as President of the Republic of China. He consistently claimed sovereignty over all of China, as well as making preparations to retake the mainland. Kai-shek would finance insurgent groups and plan a full-scale invasion in 1962. While ruling Taiwan, he purged the party of what he saw as corrupt elements. In the 1950s American aid and a land-reform act led to the island becoming economically prosperous. This has led historians to wonder what the possible changes Kaishek would have instigated had he been able to once again seize control of the mainland.

1949-1997 HONG KONG

Until 1997, Hong Kong remained under the rule of the British. Large numbers of refugees from China fled from the mainland during the initial communist takeover in 1949 and further numbers fled following the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Hong Kong’s history is intertwined with its British rule – had the KMT been able to win the civil war, it is possible it would have been returned to Chinese rule earlier.

1950s & 1960s RELATIONSHIP WITH THE USA DURING THE COLD WAR

Chinese relations with the USA throughout the period of the Cold War were initially tense, having a much closer bond with the Soviet Union. The Korean War, Taiwan Strait Crisis, Vietnam War and Chinese atomic tests were just some of the events which led to a steady escalating of tensions throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Although relations improved in the 1970s, due in part to the Sino-soviet Split, these earlier aggressions greatly affected the nature of the Cold War, particularly when China too became a nuclear power. Had the US allied more closely with a capitalist China, it is likely that the Cold War could have taken a vastly different path.