Two Chinas: Reining in the Rogue

In 1949 the Communist Party of China (CPC) under the leadership of Mao Zedung drove the Kuomintang and their leader, Chiang Kai-shek, off the mainland and onto the island of Taiwan. The CPC established a government on the mainland which has persisted to this day. Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, has flourished as a democracy for the past 70+ years. Although it is not formally a member of the United Nations and has no formal diplomatic relations with the United States, it has maintained a friendly relationship with the U.S. and the West for seventy years. For that period, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has maintained that Taiwan is nothing more than a "rogue province" which must, someday, be re-annexed and reincorporated into the political entity known as the PRC. In January of 2021, in the midst of the transition from a right-wing Republican administration to a left-wing Democrat administration in the United States, the PRC invaded Taiwan. The United States came to the aid of Taiwan with Carrier Strike Group Five and Amphibious Squadron Eleven with the help from a dozen bombers stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. A fierce battle ensued and the outcome remained in doubt for days.