A quick history lesson

Taiwan, a pretty island off the southwestern coast of China, was captured and controlled by the Empire of Japan from 1895 until 1945 (WW2) when Japan had to give Taiwan back to the Republic of China. By this time, in mainland China, Imperialism had been overthrown ( get OUT emperors and dynasties! ), and they were trying out this new idea by a guy name Dr Sun Yat Sen, which he called a Republic of China. But the people of China, fed up with eons of bone-crushing serfdom and not seeing much of a change between this Republic and Imperialism, went for the idea of Communism, where everyone across the board would be truly equal-equal. So, a civil war began, with the Communist movement beating out the pro-Republic army of Kuomintang led by General Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek and his army retreated to the island of Taiwan, where he and his son kept themselves busy building up Taiwan and keeping the dream alive. It wasn't easy for a lot of people, especially the local and indigenous Taiwanese who weren't too happy to have a whole army (about 2 million people) with their dubious ideal and strange language descend upon them. In fact, some of the Taiwanese actually preferred the time when the Japanese ran things, and so there was a period of resentment and unrest and Martial Law (lots of people were executed for saying anything against the Kuomintang). After Chiang Kai-shek died, his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, made things better with reforms to the political system, such as introducing an opposition party and lifting Martial Law. So, in the end, democracy and rapid economic growth has transformed this island into an industrialized, developed country populated with proud and happy Taiwanese people.