These volumes provide an extensive and reliable research source for study of a 100-year period of Taiwanese history. The early reports cover the nineteenth-century years of Formosa as a part of China, as well as the brief period of independence in 1895, followed by the period up to World War II as a Japanese colony. The post-war reports are valuable in documenting the struggle between the Kuomintang, led by Chiang-kai-shek, and the Communist forces of Mao-tse-tung. The Nationalists, defeated on the mainland, brought to Taiwan the flag which had been adopted as the national flag of China from 1928-1949. These reports provide contemporary accounts of the military tensions of the early 1950s, the rivalry over the Chinese heritage and the unresolved status of Taiwan. The reports give a balanced picture of the different political and ethnic constituents in Taiwanese history, with information on the Chinese, Japanese and aboriginal communities.
