2025 Elvera Kwang Siam Lim Memorial Lecture - Rana Mitter

Turmoil, Truman and Taiwan: Why the Republic of China Globalized during the Postwar, and How that Crisis Shapes US-China Relations Today

The post-World War II period saw China embroiled in global debates about the links between economic and social development, and ideological concerns about democracy and constitutionalism. Yet a brutal civil war meant that US support became much less certain, and the idea of Taiwan as a haven for non-Communist Chinese modernization became increasingly important. This talk explores the ways that ideology and internationalism interacted in the minds of Nationalist and Communist policymakers in the Chinese postwar, and suggests connections to the continuing cross-strait tensions that shape US-China relations even in the 21st century.

Speaker Bio:

Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of several books, including Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II (2013) which won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, and was named a Book of the Year in the Financial Times and Economist. His latest book is China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism (Harvard, 2020). His documentary on US-China relations “The Great Wall ” is available on BBC Sounds. He won the 2020 Medlicott Medal for Service to History, awarded by the UK Historical Association. He previously taught at Oxford, and is a Fellow of the British Academy.