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.