Why has Taiwan retained its salience for more than half a century as the principal unresolved territorial claim of the People's Republic of China? The author presents the official perspective of the current Beijing government, its predecessors in the Republican period, and the last imperial dynasties. He demonstrates that a careful look at the historical record casts doubt on the incontestability of Taiwan's status as part of China, and that the general principles used to justify the claim to Taiwan could just as well be applied to other peripheral territories that China no longer attempts to rule. Rather, he argues, Taiwan's distinctiveness derives mainly from its critical geopolitical location.

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Reframing the Cross-Strait Dispute: Geography and the Strategic Salience of Taiwan
3. The People's Republic of Qing?
4. Shifting Salience (I): From Nationalist Indifference to Geostrategic Imperative
5. Shifting Salience (II): From CCP Indifference to Instrumental Indignation
6. Shifting Salience (III): From Civil War to Cold War
7. Taiwan in the "Imagined Geography" of the PRC
8. Why Taiwan? The Great Confluence