Red Cell

EXCERPT FROM THE CIA WORLD FACTBOOK

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation.

After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China’s sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people…

Following the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists under CHIANG KAI-SHEK fled to Taiwan. Over the next five decades, the ruling authorities gradually democratized. In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) to the Democratic Progressive Party.

The dominant political issue for both countries continues to be the question of eventual unification.

CIA World Factbook