Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Hopes were high in Taiwan when Barack Obama became President of the United States in January 2009. Obama had campaigned on the promise of change and that gave many in Taiwan hope for a way out from the "strategic ambiguity" imposed on the island by the United States in 1945.

When World War II ended with the Japanese surrender to the United States in August 1945, the U.S. allowed the Japanese to continue to rule the island territory commonly called Formosa. Then, in October, the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy landed Chinese Nationalist troops of Chiang Kai-shek on the island to process Japanese soldiers thus beginning the longstanding ambiguity that prevents the island residents a representative to the World Health Organization, membership in the United Nations, or even participation in a recent climate change conference.

WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - The head of a prominent U.S. business group accused President Barack Obama of compromising Taiwan's security to promote U.S. ties with China.

Self-ruled Taiwan, which China deems a wayward province, is watching "with increased exasperation," said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.