The Treaty of Shimonoseki took Taiwan away from the motherland
"May everyone die in battle and lose Taiwan, and never give up Taiwan," this was the voice of the Taiwan people after Li Hongzhang signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in the late Qing Dynasty.
The inability of the Qing government allowed China to lose Taiwan for more than half a century, although the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent at that time, many people did not believe that if they fought Japan with all their might, would they not be able to defeat Japan?
I personally believe that there are several reasons: First, Japan has significantly improved both economically and militarily since the reform of the law, and its comprehensive national strength has reached its peak, especially in terms of weapons and ammunition, which the Qing government could not match at that time.
Second: the Qing government has always been in the stage of agricultural development, and does not pay attention to the upgrading of navigation and weapons, even if Li Hongzhang launched a foreign affairs campaign at that time, but the technical shortcomings could not catch up at once.
Coupled with the inaction of Empress Dowager Cixi, who only cared about her own arrogance and indulgence, regardless of whether the people died or lived, in fact, Li Hongzhang was very hard to develop the foreign affairs movement and had no financial resources.
One thing here reflects the dilemma of the foreign affairs movement, Japan sent Japanese emissaries to understand the power of the Qing government's fleet before launching the Sino-Japanese War, and Li Hongzhang launched a warship exercise in order to deter Japan's ambitions.
At that time, the warship only had three shells, and Li Hongzhang had already asked the imperial court to buy firearms, but the imperial court refused to think that Cixi was organizing a birthday banquet, and in desperation, Li Hongzhang could only arrange two death squads to let the target boat detonate the bomb when the shell exploded and fired, using this helpless method to deter ambitious Japan.
Of course, this is only a deterrent, and it still cannot stop Japan's idea of coveting Taiwan.
After the Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands still could not shake off the situation of being divided.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Taiwan returned to the motherland
In 1946, the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ended, and Taiwan naturally returned to China, and when the Kuomintang troops set foot on Taiwan soil again, the Taiwan compatriots welcomed the scene extremely shocked.
What the Taiwanese people did not expect was that although the Japanese army was driven away, the Kuomintang troops were not popular, and some government officials forcibly squeezed the Taiwanese people for their own interests.
To the dissatisfaction of the Taiwanese people, Chiang Kai-shek at that time abolished many administrative institutions in order to ease the contradictions in Taiwan, and let Taiwan's respected local residents serve in the party.
Actively develop industry and agriculture to ease contradictions within Taiwan, especially when Chiang Kai-shek is about to retreat to the mainland. When the mainland was defeated, there were two places to retreat, one was Hainan Island and the other was Taiwan Island. So why did Chiang Kai-shek choose Taiwan?
Reasons for choosing Taiwan
First, Taiwan's geographical location is superior to that of Hainan, and Taiwan is located in the Taiwan Strait in a vast area, which can be attacked and retreated.
Second: Taiwan has a strong foundation in industry after being under Japanese rule for a long time, which will be of great help to improving the strength of the army in the future, and will also provide a favorable guarantee for counterattacks on the mainland in the future.
Third: Taiwan has no track of Communist Party activities under Japan's long-term rule, and there is no need to worry about the penetration of the Communist Party after retreating to Taiwan.
Fourth, and most importantly, retreating to Taiwan can get the support of the United States, which can satisfy the idea of the United States blockading China, and Chiang Kai-shek can also use Taiwan to blackmail the United States into obtaining the support of the United States to achieve the idea of counterattacking the mainland.
Continuing for these reasons, Chiang Kai-shek chose to retreat to Taiwan without hesitation.
After retreating to Taiwan, just as Chiang Kai-shek thought, he did get the support of the United States at the beginning, and he also stabilized his foothold in Taiwan with the support of the United States.
And Chiang Kai-shek willingly regarded Taiwan as an overseas base of the United States.
The question of the liberation of Taiwan
Many people will wonder why not attack Taiwan and liberate it?
I personally feel that there are two reasons:
The first reason is that the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 left China with no time to pay attention to Taiwan's problems, and Taiwan has now gained a respite.
The second reason was that Taiwan at that time had the support of the United States and had reached an offensive and defensive treaty with the United States. Given China's international environment at that time, it was not appropriate to have too much conflict with the United States.
However, in any case, Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China, and Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan's Democratic Party recently planned to visit the United States, and her behavior seriously jeopardized cross-strait reunification, and perhaps she will become a sinner of history.
This act of hers will eventually be spurned by people on both sides of the strait.