Taiwan

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The island of Taiwan sits off of the coast of southern China between the East China Sea, the South China Sea, southwestern Japan's Nansei-shoto Islands, and the Pacific Ocean. The island is mostly mountainous in the east, but gradually transitions to gently sloping plains in the west. At the northern tip of the island is Taiwan's capital city, Taipei, which appears as a large grayish patch surrounded by dark green. In this image, most of Taiwan's eastern coast is dotted with low clouds, with low and high clouds off the coast in the Pacific Ocean. MODIS also detected three fires, which are marked in red. (Satellite photo by NASA)

Taiwan is an island nation in East Asia and has served as the seat of the Republic of China (Free China) since 1949. Known for its natural beauty and political freedom, the country is 245 miles long and 89 miles wide, with a steep central mountain range and plains on the west coast. The capital city is Taipei (Tai2 bei3 台北）in the north of the island, territory originally inhabited by Ketagalan tribes.

History

Pre-historically, Taiwan's inhabitants were the indigenous tribespeople, who today still make up around 2% of the entire Taiwanese population, analogous to first nation Americans. This changed with the arrival of Han Chinese invaders in the Ming dynasty, who swiftly lost control of the island to Dutch explorers, who colonised the island in 1624. They imported many Chinese labourers to work for them, from the southern provinces of the mainland, especially from Fujian, who then settled, accounting for the modern Taiwanese language, related closely to Fujian dialects. The Dutch were forced to leave by the Ming pirate, Zheng Chenggong, or Guoxingye (sometimes known as Koxinga), in 1662, hoping to create a bastion of Ming supporters to try to oust the then-reigning Manchu Qing dynasty, similar to the situation 400 years later under Jiang Jieshi. The island surrendered to Qing forces under Zheng's grandson in 1683, leading to a period of Manchu-Chinese control of the island until the First Sino-Japanese war and the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Taiwan was governed by Japan from 1894 to 1945. Unlike Japan's occupation of other Asian areas, Nipponese presence in Taiwan was largely beneficial to the Han Chinese and most later inhabitants, modernising transport and improving many aspects of daily life. This civilizing effect of Japanese occupation allowed the people of Taiwan to make great social and technological advances, although many indigenous tribes, especially the Atayal, who were head-hunters, of the northern part of the island, resisted the Japanese. Subsequent to World War II, Taiwan was returned to China; in 1949 the Republican government withdrew to Taiwan following the victory of the Communists in the civil war in mainland China.

Economy

Taiwan is an important world manufacturer of computer chips and components and consumer electronics.

Politics

The Taiwanese people enjoy a free market economy, and its democratic government provides freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and universal health care. During the Cold War, the Republic of China was recognized by most of the non-Communist world as the sole legitimate government of China and a bastion of freedom against Communist oppression on the mainland. However, the Communist bloc gained enough votes in 1971 to eject Free China from the United Nations and the Western bloc derecognized Free China en masse as backing for that position had lost its original zeal, in no small part due to the falling out between the Soviet Union and China as well as a belief that Communist China had become more open to the west over time. The Republic of China has been unsuccessful in its repeated attempts to rejoin the United Nations. Under the administration of Jimmy Carter, the United States broke relations with Free China and established them with Communist China in 1979. In the United States, both Democrat and Republican administrations have blocked the efforts of the Taiwanese people to seek Taiwan’s entry on the world stage and refuse to use its official name - the Republic of China -- in official contexts.

This, however, is but a part of Taiwan's complex political situation. There are several Taiwanese independence movements in various communities, including the various aboriginal tribes and the semi-native Taiwanese-speaking communities whose descendants arrived much earlier than the Nationalist move, and the many social groups of Taiwan all seemingly wish to go in a different direction to each other. Despite this, the island is very peaceful, and one of the safest countries in Asia.

Chinese Claim and Counterclaim

Both the ROC and the PRC claim sovereignty over all of China.

Though Taiwan exhibits all of the characteristics of a sovereign nation, the People's Republic of China makes a claim to all of Taiwan's territory, and asserts that Taiwan is still a territory of China, as it has been historically, and that China is run by the Communists. Meanwhile, Taiwan also claims that there is one China, but that it is rightly run as the Republic of China, which predates the Communist revolution. Taiwan's vision of China officially includes Mongolia, which is currently an independent soverign nation, based upon it being a part of China under the Qing Dynasty.

Both governments largely accept the status quo as it currently exists, but Communist China has let it be known that they would not accept any effort of Taiwan to declare independence, as they believe China with its long history is inseparable.