In Mae Salong (a highland village in northern Thailand originally settled by Kuomintang troops who fled China after the 1949 Communist victory), ethnic Chinese residents who remain stateless face a deepening crisis of identity as both Taiwan and the People's Republic of China vie for cultural and political influence. Figures such as businessman Li Taizeng, whose father served in the Nationalist army, run Chinese-language schools using Taiwan-donated traditional-character textbooks and display the Republic of China flag — yet face accusations of political sympathy toward Beijing. The community's predicament illustrates how questions of resources and pragmatic survival complicate straightforward national loyalty among people who belong, legally and culturally, to neither state.