January 10, 2009: China announced that it would eventually absorb Taiwan via economic means. The implication being that China would eventually become so economically powerful that the Taiwanese would willingly rejoin China. To that end, China has proposed a formal truce for a conflict that has gone on for over 80 years. The Chinese Civil War between the Communist and Nationalist parties, began in the 1920. The Nationalists were driven from China, to Taiwan, in 1949, and have, until recently, insisted they were still the true government of China. The Nationalists arrived on Taiwan as an ethnic minority, outnumbered by the native Taiwanese. The Nationalists ruled by force for many years, but democracy overtook them in the 1990s, and, in 2000, a Taiwanese party ruled the country for the first time. The Taiwanese favor independence, while many in the Nationalist party still favor unification with China. The Nationalists are back in control in Taiwan, and are willing to make deals with long-time archenemy China.