In chemistry, two prevailing types of bonds between atoms exist. Covalent bonds describe a connection between two atoms in which both share their electrons in order to form a desirable octet between the two. Ionic bonds, however, occur through the transfer of electrons between two atoms; in actuality, the atoms remain separate from one another, and have little more in common than an electron transaction. In essence, the bond between ions breaks as both dissociate from each other over time, resulting in completely separate entities. Extended to political relations, the bond between the People’s Republic of China under the command of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Republic of China, Taiwan, whose political scheme constitutes a multiparty democracy, resembles the nebulous ionic bond rather than the tangible covalent due to the development of different political systems and national identities over the last several decades.
To compress the involved history of China and Taiwan into relevant points, both governments originated in China during the civil war in the early twentieth century after the decline and collapse of the dynastic system in 1912. The subsequent power vacuum was filled by the Koumintang party, abbreviated KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek, which established the Republic of China in the early 1920s. Mounting tension between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, resulted in the defeat of the KMT in 1949, and its subsequent retreat to the island of Taiwan. There, the KMT re-established the Republic of China, and declared its sovereignty over all of China itself. Concurrently, the CCP led by Chairman Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China, and also declared itself the true government of all China...
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...n which the only product is mutual destruction.
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