by Finian Cunningham, Strategic Culture:

Ever since China’s civil war ended in 1949 with victory for the Communist side, the island of Taiwan off China’s southern coast has been a U.S. pawn as a haven for anti-Communist forces. The United States has sponsored the Taiwanese separatists first under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and up to the present administration in Taipei. Ironically, Washington portrays Taiwan as “democratic and free”.