LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Taiwan: Mainland
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The third view considers the move for Taiwan independence as a nationalist movement. This is the opinion, historically, put forward by such pro-independence groups on Taiwan as the tang wai movement (which later grew into the Democratic Progressive Party), which argue that the ROC under the Kuomintang has been in the past a "foreign regime" forcibly imposed on Taiwan. Since the 1990s, supporters of Taiwan independence no longer actively make this argument. Instead, the argument has been that in order to survive against the growing power of the PRC, Taiwan must view itself as a separate and distinct entity from "China". This involves removing the name of China from official and unofficial items in Taiwan, making changes in history books to focus mainly on Taiwan as a central entity, promoting the use of Taiwanese, reducing economic links with mainland China, and in general thinking of Taiwan as a separate entity. In this view, China is a foreign entity, and the goal of this movement is to create an internationally recognized country which is separate from any concept of China.
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Taiwan eases restrictions for business that wish to invest in companies on mainland China. Although many businesses had already found loopholes in these 50-year-old policies, economists hope that the rollback will boost Taiwan's slumping economy and speed up the integration of the economies of Taiwan and China, which are expected to join the World Trade Organization later this month.
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Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988 and was replaced by Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwan native, who was reelected by the national assembly in 1990. In 1991, Lee ended emergency rule, and all the members of the national assembly, many of whom were mainland delegates originally elected in 1947, stepped down. In elections for a new national assembly, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), which continued to promise unification with the mainland, held on to a majority, but the Democratic Progressive party, strongly advocating an independent “Republic of Taiwan,†won nearly a third of the seats; the KMT retained its hold on the legislature throughout the 1990s.
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After the defeat of its armies on the mainland, the Nationalist government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan in Dec. 1949. Chiang dominated the island, even though only 15% of the population consisted of the 1949 immigrants, the Kuomintang. He maintained a 600,000-man army in the hope of eventually recovering the mainland. Beijing viewed the Taiwanese government with suspicion and anger, referring to Taiwan as a breakaway province of China.
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Some 1.3 million refugees from Mainland China, consisting mainly of soldiers, KMT party members and most importantly the intellectual and business elites fled the mainland and arrived in Taiwan around that time. In addition, as part of its escape from Communists on the mainland, the Nationalist government relocated to Taiwan with many national treasures including gold reserves and foreign currency reserves. This was often used by the PRC government to explain its economic difficulties and Taiwan's comparative prosperity.
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Except for some charter flights at Spring Festival, there are no direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan. The usual practice is to fly via either Hong Kong or Macau, which have good connections both ways. Alternate routes via South Korea or Japan or other Asian countries are possible, but generally more expensive.
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