Made in the aftermath of the Chinese Revolution, this profile of Taiwan shows the Nationalist Chinese government in exile, and highlights the fact that the island is now the sanctuary of the “free Chinese”. Taipei is shown, the seat of government of Nationalist China, and profiles are shown of native Taiwanese and the immigrant Chinese and exiled citizens of China. At the 3:00 mark, the Taipei airport is seen, with the “Welcome to Free China” sign prominently placed at the tarmac. Full of Cold War rhetoric, the film spends a lot of screen time showing the training of the Taiwanese Army and Air Forces, as well as the Navy. The Free Chinese Air Force is seen at the 5:30 mark, patrolling the “Bamboo Curtain” with surplus U.S. P-47 Thunderbolts. A full-scale military landing exercise is shown at the 6:45 mark, while the narrator speaks about how this is a preliminary / preparatory exercise of the type that will be conducted in the future against mainland China. Of course, such an invasion remained completely impractical and the thing of fantasy, not reality, in the decades that followed.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a sovereign state in East Asia. The Republic of China, originally based in mainland China, now governs the island of Taiwan, which makes up over 99% of its territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with a population density of 648 people per km2 in March 2015. Taipei is the seat of the central government, and together with the surrounding cities of New Taipei and Keelung forms the largest metropolitan area on the island.
The island of Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa”) was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines until the Dutch and Spanish settlement during the Age of Discovery in the 17th century, when Han Chinese began immigrating to the island. In 1662, the pro-Ming loyalist Koxinga expelled the Dutch and established the first Han Chinese polity on the island, the Kingdom of Tungning. The Qing dynasty of China later defeated the kingdom and annexed Taiwan. By the time Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, the majority of Taiwan’s inhabitants were Han Chinese either by ancestry or by assimilation. The Republic of China (ROC) was established in mainland China in 1912. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the ROC assumed its control of Taiwan. Following the Chinese civil war, the Communist Party of China took full control of mainland China and founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The ROC relocated its government to Taiwan, and its jurisdiction became limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. Despite this, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China’s seat via Resolution 2758 and the ROC lost its UN membership. International recognition of the ROC has gradually eroded as most countries switched recognition to the PRC. 21 UN member states and the Holy See currently maintain official diplomatic relations with the ROC. It has unofficial ties with most other states via its representative offices.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
