The statement, “Taiwan split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949″ is a factual error. Taiwan was a part of the Japanese empire until the end of WWII, when it fell to US Military jurisdiction as all Japanese lands did (Guam, Saipan, Philippines, etc). Prior to this, the Dutch, Spanish, English and many other countries had outposts or controlled parts of Taiwan, the Dutch being first in 1624. In the San Francisco Peace Treaty of April 1952, Japan renounced all right, title, and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores. However, no receiving country was named for this territorial cession. The Republic of China was entrusted with authority over Formosa and the Pescadores based on the specifications of General Order No. 1 of Sept. 2, 1945, issued by General Douglas MacArthur. The Republic of China became a government-in-exile when it moved its central government to occupied Taiwan in mid-December 1949. Any historical documents prior to Japan’s control of Taiwan indicate the Manchus (northern foreigners who conquered China and ruled as the Qing dynasty) controlled only an small section of Taiwan for less than six years as a colony; similar to how several European countries controlled small sections of China as colonies, so shall we say China split from England? Neither therefore could Formosa have “split from the mainland.”