The People’s Republic of China has had a dispute with Taiwan since the Nationalists, who were fighting the Communists on the mainland, fled to Taiwan at the end of World War II. Decades later, as China became more powerful in the eyes of various American political administrations, China gave the United States a choice: recognize China or Taiwan, but not both. The United States chose China. Although officially not recognized, Taiwan is one of the United States’s strongest allies in the region, and one of its most significant trading partners. Taiwan has very close official and unofficial ties with the United States.