And then, in October 1971, over two decades after Howard and two million other Nationalist and Nationalist-affiliated refugees had fled to the island of Taiwan, the Republic of China lost its United Nations seat. Despite years of backing Chiang’s (anti-Communist) government as the rightful leadership of China, the UN had charged that Chiang and his exiled officials could no longer claim to represent the millions of Chinese citizens back on the mainland. They promptly gave the seat to the People’s Republic of China. By the following February, Howard was staring at a front-page photo of Nixon
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