Chinese nationalism
After Imperial Japan was defeated in the Second World War, Chinese nationalism again gained tract as China recovered lost territories previously lost to Japan, including Manchuria and Taiwan. However, the Chinese Civil War, (which had paused in the face of Japanese invasion) had resumed, damaging the image of a unified Chinese identity. The Communists were victorious in 1949, as the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan. Under Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party began to employ Chinese nationalism as a political tool. Using Chinese nationalism, the Chinese Communist Party began to suppress separatism and secessionist attitudes in Tibet and among the Uyghurs, a Turkic minority in the far-west province of Xinjiang, an issue that persists. In modern times, especially due to changing US-China relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China often cite ideas of Chinese nationalism when responding to press questions on the topic.