Ever since Mao’s Communists won the civil war (which the last meeting between the parties, in 1945, had been called to try to avert) and Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces withdrew to Taiwan, relations between the two sides have smoldered without ever really catching fire. While there was no love lost between the United States and the Kuomintang leadership, the US gave Taiwan assurances of military protection, which deterred China from trying to unify the island with the mainland by force.
自毛泽东的共产党赢得内战、蒋介石的国民党力量退入台湾以来（1945年上一次两党会晤便是为了避免内战），双方的关系一直在“焖烧”从未真正走火。美国和国民党之间的关系并不好，但美国仍向台湾提供军事保护承诺，这威慑了中国，后者没有尝试用武力统一两岸。