Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s: Lost Opportunity for Independence?

When the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan exited the United Nations in 1971 and the normalization process began between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, there was a sense among Western experts that an opportunity for the island’s leaders to declare their legal independence from Mainland China had been lost. As China emerged from its diplomatic isolation, both self and externally imposed, these Westerners believed that the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party were open to be pragmatic toward of the Taiwan issue even if leadership on the island itself was not. This paper will explore the legitimacy of this assumption.