From a province to a sovereign state: Taiwans political changes as reflected in the three critical years 1951, 1971 and 1991

After the end of World War II, the United States assisted the Republic of China occupying Taiwan because of the promise made at the Cairo Conference in 1943. Considering Taiwan as a lost territory recovered, the ROC government re-designated Taiwan as a province of China even before a peace treaty with Japan was concluded. In 1951, General MacArthur first and then President Truman consequently declared the "undetermined status of Taiwan," a position evident in the texts of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.

After the US sought rapprochement with China and Kissinger made his secret visit there in 1971 were the representatives of the ROC (Chiang Kai-shek) expelled from the UN, on October 25 of the same year. When President Chiang Ching-kuo passed away in 1988, he was succeeded by the Taiwan-born Vice President Lee Teng-hui. He was elected president in his own right in 1990.

President Lee began a series of constitutional reforms to let Taiwan become a de facto independent country.