Pengguna:Natsukusha/bak pasir: Perbedaan antara revisi
Konten dihapus Konten ditambahkan
Natsukusha (bicara | kontrib) Tidak ada ringkasan suntingan Tag: Suntingan visualeditor-wikitext |
Natsukusha (bicara | kontrib) Tidak ada ringkasan suntingan Tag: Suntingan visualeditor-wikitext |
||
Baris 7:
| image_flag = Flag of the Republic of China.svg
| flag_type = [[Bendera Republik Tiongkok|Bendera]]
| image_coat = National Emblem of the Republic of China.
| other_symbol = '''[[Cap Republik Tiongkok|Cap negara]]'''<br>{{lang|zh-Hant|中華民國之璽}}<br/>[[Cap Republik Tiongkok]]<br />[[File:中華民國之璽.svg|85px]]<hr>'''Puspa bangsa'''<br>[[File:Meihua ROC.svg|50px]]<br>{{lang|zh-Hant|梅花}}<br />[[Puspa
| symbol_type = [[Lambang Republik Tiongkok|Lambang]]
| national_anthem = {{lang|zh-Hant|中華民國國歌}}<br/>[[Lagu Kebangsaan Republik Tiongkok]]<br /><div style="display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;">{{center|[[File:National anthem of the Republic of China (Taiwan) 中華民國國歌(演奏版).ogg]]}}</div>
Baris 105:
| cctld = {{vunblist|[[.tw]] |[[.台灣]] |[[.台湾]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://brussels38.icann.org/meetings/brussels2010/transcript-board-25jun10-en.txt |title=ICANN Board Meeting Minutes |publisher=ICANN |date=25 June 2010}}</ref>}}
}}
{{Short description|Country in East Asia}}
{{Hatnote|"Republic of China" redirects here. For other uses, see [[Taiwan (disambiguation)]] and [[Republic of China (disambiguation)]].}}
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{coord|24|N|121|E|type:country_region:TW|display=title}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Republic of China
| common_name = Taiwan
| native_name = {{unbulleted list|{{native name|zh-Hant-TW|中華民國|italic=no}}{{efn native lang|tw|name=word1|t=中華民國|p=Zhōnghuá Mínguó|m=Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok|s=Chûng-fà Mìn-koet}}|{{transl|zh|Zhōnghuá Mínguó}} ([[Pinyin]])}}
| image_flag = Flag of the Republic of China.svg
| alt_flag = A red flag, with a small blue rectangle in the top left hand corner on which sits a white sun composed of a circle surrounded by 12 rays.
| flag_type = [[Flag of the Republic of China|Flag]]
| image_coat = National Emblem of the Republic of China.svg
| alt_coat = A blue circular emblem on which sits a white sun composed of a circle surrounded by 12 rays.
| other_symbol = '''[[Seal of the Republic of China|National seal]]'''<br>{{lang|zh-Hant|中華民國之璽}}<br/>"[[Seal of the Republic of China]]"<br />[[File:中華民國之璽.svg|85px]]<hr>'''National flower'''<br>[[File:Meihua ROC.svg|50px]]<br>{{lang|zh-Hant|梅花}}<br />[[National Flower of the Republic of China|Plum blossom]]
| symbol_type = [[Emblem of Taiwan|Emblem]]
| national_anthem = {{lang|zh-Hant|中華民國國歌}}<br />''Zhōnghuá Mínguó guógē''<br/>"[[National Anthem of the Republic of China]]"<br /><div style="display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;">{{center|[[File:National anthem of the Republic of China (Taiwan) 中華民國國歌(演奏版).ogg]]}}</div>
| flag_anthem = {{lang|zh-Hant|中華民國國旗歌}}<br />''Zhōnghuá Míngúo Gúoqígē''<br />"[[National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China]]"<br/><div style="display:inline-block;margin-top:0.4em;">{{center|[[File:中華民國國旗歌 (演奏版).ogg]]}}</div>
| image_map = {{Switcher|[[File:Island of Taiwan (orthographic projection).svg|upright=1.15|frameless]]|Show globe ([[Geography of Taiwan|island of Taiwan]] highlighted)|[[File:Locator map of the ROC Taiwan.svg|upright=1.15|frameless]]|Show map of [[Free area of the Republic of China|territories administered by the ROC (Free Area)]]|[[File:Republic of China (orthographic projection).svg|upright=1.15|frameless]]|Show map of Taiwan (dark green) with historical ROC territorial claims (light green)|default=1}}
| map_caption =
| largest_city = [[New Taipei City|New Taipei]]
| capital = [[Taipei]]{{efn|[[Taipei]] is the official seat of [[government of the Republic of China]] although the [[Constitution of the Republic of China]] does not specify the ''de jure'' capital.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/12/04/2003578264/2 |title=Since the implementation of the Act Governing Principles for Editing Geographical Educational Texts (地理敎科書編審原則) in 1997, the guiding principle for all maps in geographical textbooks was that Taipei was to be marked as the capital with a label stating: "Location of the Central Government" |date=4 December 2013 |access-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101013333/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/12/04/2003578264/2 |archive-date=1 November 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}<ref name="capital">{{cite news |title=Interior minister reaffirms Taipei is ROC's capital |date=5 December 2013|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/12/05/2003578356 |newspaper=Taipei Times |access-date=7 December 2013}}</ref>
| coordinates = {{coord|25|04|N|121|31|E|type:city_region:TW}}
| ethnic_groups = >95% [[Han Taiwanese|Han]]<br>—70% [[Hoklo Taiwanese|Hoklo]]<br>—14% [[Hakka people|Hakka]]<br>—14% [[Waishengren]]<br>2% [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples|Indigenous]]<ref>{{cite book |year=2016 |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2016 |publisher=Executive Yuan, R.O.C.|url=https://issuu.com/eyroc/docs/the_republic_of_china_yearbook_2016|access-date=31 May 2020 |isbn=9789860499490 |page=10|quote=Ethnicity: Over 95 percent Han Chinese (including Holo, Hakka and other groups originating in mainland China); 2 percent indigenous Austronesian peoples}}</ref>{{efn|Mixed indigenous-Han ancestry is included in the figure for Han Chinese.}}
| official_languages = [[Standard Chinese]] {{efn|[[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin]]<ref name="推動雙語國家政策問題研析">{{cite web |title=推動雙語國家政策問題研析|url=https://www.ly.gov.tw/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeid=6590&pid=173510 |website=www.ly.gov.tw |access-date=25 May 2021 |language=zh}}</ref><br>[[Vernacular Chinese]] (used in most occasions) <br>[[Classical Chinese]] (used in formal or ceremonial occasions, religious or cultural rites, official documents, legal and court rulings and judiciary documents)<ref>{{cite web |title=法律統一用語表-常見公文用語說明|url=http://oga.ncu.edu.tw/ncuoga/dispatch/doc/%E5%B8%B8%E8%A6%8B%E5%85%AC%E6%96%87%E7%94%A8%E8%AA%9E%E8%AA%AA%E6%98%8E1050106.pdf |access-date=2 June 2021 |language=zh}}</ref> }}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan) |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2012 |date=2012 |isbn=9789860345902 |page=24 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 2: People and Language |access-date=2013-12-18 |chapter-url=http://www.ey.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=F4FA171B7E10F12F |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014222446/http://www.ey.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=F4FA171B7E10F12F |archive-date=2013-10-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Government Information Office |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2010 |date=2010 |isbn=9789860252781 |page=42 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 2: People and Language |chapter-url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/02People&Language.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805173731/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/02People%26Language.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-05 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Liao |first=Silvie |url=http://naccl.osu.edu/files/21_liao-s.pdf |title=Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20) |date=2008 |publisher=The Ohio State University |isbn=9780982471500 |editor-last=Chan |editor-first=Marjorie K. M. |volume=1 |location=Columbus, Ohio |page=393 |language=en |chapter=A Perceptual Dialect Study of Taiwan Mandarin: Language Attitudes in the Era of Political Battle |editor-last2=Kang |editor-first2=Hana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110315/http://naccl.osu.edu/files/21_liao-s.pdf |archive-date=2013-12-24 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| languages_type = [[Official script]]
| languages = [[Traditional Chinese characters|Traditional Chinese]]<ref>{{cite web |title=行政院第3251次院會決議 |url=https://www.ey.gov.tw/Page/4EC2394BE4EE9DD0/51cc88a4-2066-44da-964d-18e10468f578|website=www.ey.gov.tw |access-date=25 May 2021 |language=zh}}</ref>
| languages2_type = [[National language]]s{{efn|A national language in Taiwan is legally defined as "a natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan and the Taiwan Sign Language".<ref name="natLangAct">{{cite web |script-title=zh:國家語言發展法 |url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=H0170143 |website=law.moj.gov.tw |access-date=22 May 2019 |language=zh}}</ref>}}
| languages2 = {{hlist|[[Formosan languages|Formosan]]<ref>{{cite web |title = Indigenous Languages Development Act |url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=D0130037 |website=law.moj.gov.tw |access-date = 22 May 2019}}</ref>|[[Taiwanese Hakka|Hakka]]<ref>{{cite web |title = Hakka Basic Act |url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=D0140005 |website=law.moj.gov.tw |access-date=22 May 2019}}</ref>|[[Taiwanese Hokkien|Hokkien]]{{efn|name = nat-lang|Not designated but meets legal definition}}|[[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin]]{{efn|name = nat-lang}}|[[Matsu dialect|Matsu]]{{efn|name = nat-lang}}|[[Putian dialect|Wuqiu]]{{efn|name = nat-lang}}|[[Taiwan Sign Language]]
}}
| religion = {{vunblist
|35.1% [[Buddhism in Taiwan|Buddhism]]
|33.0% [[Taoism]]
|18.7% [[Irreligion|No religion]]
|3.9% [[Christianity in Taiwan|Christianity]]
|9.3% [[Religion in Taiwan|Others]]<ref name="cia-factbook" />}}
| demonym = [[Taiwanese people|Taiwanese]]<ref name="cia-factbook" />
| government_type = [[Unitary state|Unitary]] [[Semi-presidential system|semi-presidential]] [[democratic republic]]
| leader_title1 = [[President of the Republic of China|President]]
| leader_name1 = [[Tsai Ing-wen]]
| leader_title2 = [[Vice President of the Republic of China|Vice President]]
| leader_name2 = [[Lai Ching-te]]
| leader_title3 = [[Premier of the Republic of China|Premier]]
| leader_name3 = [[Su Tseng-chang]]
| leader_title4 = [[President of the Legislative Yuan|Legislative Yuan President]]
| leader_name4 = [[Yu Shyi-kun]]
| leader_title5 = [[President of the Control Yuan|Control Yuan President]]
| leader_name5 = [[Chen Chu]]
| leader_title6 = [[List of presidents of the Judicial Yuan|Judicial Yuan President]]
| leader_name6 = [[Hsu Tzong-li]]
| leader_title7 = [[List of presidents of the Examination Yuan|Examination Yuan President]]
| leader_name7 = [[Huang Jong-tsun]]
| legislature = [[Legislative Yuan]]
| sovereignty_type = [[History of the Republic of China|Formation]]
| sovereignty_note =
| established_event1 = [[Xinhai Revolution]]
| established_date1 = [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|10 October 1911]]
| established_event2 = Took control of [[Geography of Taiwan|Taiwan]] and the [[Penghu Island|Pescadores]]{{efn|Interpretations on whether this entails a complete transfer of the territory’s sovereignty to the Republic of China vary. Japan renounced the claims to Taiwan and Pescadores in the [[Treaty of San Francisco]] in 1952; see [[Retrocession Day]], [[Theory of the Undetermined Status of Taiwan]] and [[political status of Taiwan]].}}
| established_date2 = [[History of Taiwan (1945-present)|25 October 1945]]
| established_event3 = [[Constitution of the Republic of China|Constitution adopted]]
| established_date3 = 25 December 1947
| established_event4 = [[Government of the Republic of China|Current government]] [[1948 Chinese presidential election|established]]
| established_date4 = 20 May 1948
| established_event5 = [[Chinese Communist Revolution|Government moved to Taipei]]
| established_date5 = 7 December 1949
| established_event6 = [[Cross-Strait Act|Cross-Strait relations legally defined]]
| established_date6 = 31 July 1992
| area_km2 = 36,197
| area_footnote = <ref name="taiwansnapshot">{{cite web|url=https://www.taiwan.gov.tw/images/content/ts.JPG|title=TAIWAN SNAPSHOT|access-date=15 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="cia-factbook" />
| area_rank = <!-- Area rank should match [[List of countries and dependencies by area]]; should not be any here -->
| population_estimate = 23,451,837<ref name="Natl Statistics">{{cite web |title=Statistics from Statistical Bureau |url=http://eng.stat.gov.tw/point.asp?index=9 |access-date=26 September 2021 |website=National Statistics, Republic of China (Taiwan)}}</ref>
| population_census = 23,123,866<ref>{{cite web|title=General Statistical analysis report, Population and Housing Census|url=http://eng.stat.gov.tw/public/Data/5428162113SIDMH93P.pdf|website=National Statistics, ROC (Taiwan)|access-date=26 November 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226090918/http://eng.stat.gov.tw/public/Data/5428162113SIDMH93P.pdf|archive-date=26 December 2016}}</ref>
| population_estimate_year = 2021
| population_estimate_rank = 56th
| population_census_year = 2010
| population_census_rank =
| population_density_km2 = 650
| population_density_rank = 10th
| GDP_PPP = {{increase}} $1.403 trillion<ref name="IMFWEOTW">{{cite web |url=https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2020/October/weo-report?c=528,&s=NGDPD,PPPGDP,NGDPDPC,PPPPC,LUR,LP,&sy=2019&ey=2021&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1 |title=World Economic Outlook Database, October 2020 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] |website=IMF.org |access-date=23 October 2020}}</ref>
| GDP_PPP_year = 2021
| GDP_PPP_rank = 19th
| GDP_PPP_per_capita = {{increase}} $56,959<ref name="IMFWEOTW"/>
| GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 13th
| GDP_nominal = {{increase}} $759.104 billion<ref name="IMFWEOTW"/>
| GDP_nominal_year = 2021
| GDP_nominal_rank = 21st
| GDP_nominal_per_capita = {{increase}} $32,123<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stat.gov.tw/public/data/dgbas03/bs4/ninews/11002/news11002.pdf |title=GDP: Preliminary Estimate for 2020Q4 and Outlook for 2021 |publisher=[[Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics]] |website=dgbas.gov.tw |access-date=7 May 2021}}</ref>
| GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 29th
| Gini = 34.1
| Gini_year = 2017
| Gini_change = increase
| Gini_ref = <ref>{{cite web |title=Percentage share of disposable income by quintile groups of income recipients and measures of income distribution |url=https://win.dgbas.gov.tw/fies/doc/result/106/a11/Year17.ods |website=stat.gov.tw |access-date=26 June 2019}}</ref>
| Gini_rank =
| HDI = 0.916
| HDI_year = 2019
| HDI_change = increase
| HDI_ref = <ref name="HDI 2019">{{cite web|url=https://www.dgbas.gov.tw/public/Data/112116036FDX2D8F3.pdf|title=國情統計通報（第 014 號）|publisher= Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (ROC)|date=21 January 2021|access-date=26 January 2021}}</ref>
| HDI_rank = 23rd
| currency = [[New Taiwan dollar]] (NT$)
| currency_code = TWD
| time_zone = [[National Standard Time]]
| utc_offset = +8
| date_format = {{bulleted list
|YYYY-MM-DD
|YYY-MM-DD ([[Minguo calendar]])
}}
| electricity = 110 V–60 Hz{{efn|220 V is also used for high power appliances such as air conditioners}}
| drives_on = Right
| calling_code = [[Telephone numbers in Taiwan|+886]]
| cctld = {{vunblist|[[.tw]] |[[.台灣]] |[[.台湾]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://brussels38.icann.org/meetings/brussels2010/transcript-board-25jun10-en.txt |title=ICANN Board Meeting Minutes |publisher=ICANN |date=25 June 2010}}</ref>}}
}}
'''Taiwan''',{{efn native lang|tw|name=word2|t=臺灣 or 台灣|p=Táiwān|m=Tâi-uân|s=Tǒi-vǎn|a=Taywan|pw=Taiwan}} officially the '''Republic of China'''<!-- Consensus was reached on 14 August 2020 on the talk page to display "Republic of China" as official name. See [[Talk:Taiwan/Archive_32#RfC:_Taiwan's_official_name]]. Do not modify its official name. --> ('''ROC'''),{{efn native lang|tw|name=word1|t=中華民國|p=Zhōnghuá Mínguó|m=Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok|s=Chûng-fà Mìn-koet}}{{Efn|see [[#Name|etymology]] below|name=|group=}} is a country<!-- Taiwan has been recognised as a country instead of a state (or other definition) by Wikipedia, see recent RfC [[Talk:Taiwan/Archive 30#RfC: Taiwan, "country" or "state"]]. Do not change its status as a country. --> in [[East Asia]].<ref name="fell">{{cite book|last1=Fell|first1=Dafydd|title=Government and Politics in Taiwan|date=2018|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-1317285069|page=305|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8hHDwAAQBAJ|quote=Moreover, its status as a vibrant democratic state has earned it huge international sympathy and a generally positive image.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Campbell |first1=Matthew |title=China's Next Crisis Brews in Taiwan's Upcoming Election |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-01-07/china-s-next-crisis-brews-in-taiwan-s-upcoming-election |magazine=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |date=7 January 2020 |issue=4642 |pages=34–39 |issn=0007-7135 |access-date=24 September 2020 |quote=Much has changed in Taiwan since Chiang’s day, but this liminal quality has never really gone away. By almost any functional standard, it's a sovereign country}}</ref><ref name="kyo21">{{cite news |title=Japan's PM refers to Taiwan as country, draws fire from China |date=2021-06-10 |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/7feb56acb3fe-japans-pm-refers-to-taiwan-as-country-draws-fire-from-china.html |work=[[Kyodo News]] |access-date=2021-10-25 |quote=Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga referred to Taiwan as a country, immediately drawing fire on Thursday from mainland China, which regards the island as a renegade province. }}</ref><ref name="kuh21">{{cite news |title=After Being Silent For Decades, Japan Now Speaks Up About Taiwan — And Angers China |first=Anthony |last=Kuhn |date=2021-08-02 |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/26/1020866539/japans-position-on-defending-taiwan-has-taken-a-remarkable-shift |work=npr |access-date=2021-10-25 |quote='We have to protect Taiwan, as a democratic country,' Japan's deputy defense minister, Yasuhide Nakayama, said in a conference in June. }}</ref> It shares [[Maritime boundary|maritime borders]] with the [[China|People's Republic of China]] (PRC) to the northwest, [[Japan]] to the northeast, and the [[Philippines]] to the south. The main [[island of Taiwan]], formerly known as ''Formosa'', has an area of {{convert|35808|km2}}, with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly [[Urbanization|urbanised]] [[Taiwanese people|population]] is concentrated. The capital is [[Taipei]], which, along with [[New Taipei]] and [[Keelung]], forms the [[Taipei metropolitan area|largest metropolitan area]] of Taiwan. Other major cities include [[Kaohsiung]], [[Taichung]], [[Tainan]] and [[Taoyuan, Taiwan|Taoyuan]]. With 23.45 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated countries in the world.
[[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]-speaking ancestors of [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples]] settled the [[Geography of Taiwan|island]] around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale [[Han people|Han Chinese]] immigration to western Taiwan began under a [[Dutch Formosa|Dutch colony]] and continued under the [[Kingdom of Tungning]]. The island was [[Taiwan under Qing rule|annexed in 1683]] by the [[Qing dynasty]] of China, and [[Treaty of Shimonoseki|ceded]] to the [[Empire of Japan]] in 1895. The [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]], which had [[Xinhai Revolution|overthrown the Qing in 1911]], took control of Taiwan on behalf of the [[World War II Allies]] following the [[surrender of Japan]] in 1945. The resumption of the [[Chinese Civil War]] resulted in the ROC's loss of [[mainland China]] to forces of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) and [[Republic of China retreat to Taiwan|retreat to Taiwan]] in 1949. Its effective jurisdiction has since been limited to [[free area of the Republic of China|Taiwan and numerous smaller islands]].
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialisation called the "[[Taiwan Miracle]]". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a [[One-party state|one-party]] military dictatorship to a [[multi-party democracy]] with a [[semi-presidential system]]. Taiwan's export-oriented industrial economy is the [[list of countries by GDP (nominal)|21st-largest]] in the world by nominal GDP, and [[List of countries by GDP (PPP)|20th-largest]] by PPP measures, with major contributions from steel, machinery, electronics and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a [[developed country]],<ref name="wb">[https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519 World Bank Country and Lending Groups] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111190936/https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519 |date=11 January 2018 }}, [[World Bank]]. Retrieved 10 July 2018.</ref><ref name="qq">{{cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/pdf/text.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421023851/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/pdf/text.pdf|url-status=dead|title=IMF Advanced Economies List. World Economic Outlook, April 2016, p. 148|archive-date=21 April 2016}}</ref> ranking 15th in [[List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita|GDP per capita]]. It is ranked highly in terms of political and [[civil liberties]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019|title=Freedom in the World 2019|date=3 January 2019|website=freedomhouse.org|access-date=22 February 2019}}</ref> [[education]], [[health care]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Yao|first1=Grace|last2=Cheng|first2=Yen-Pi|last3=Cheng|first3=Chiao-Pi|date=5 November 2008|title=The Quality of Life in Taiwan|journal=Social Indicators Research|volume=92|issue=2|pages=377–404|doi=10.1007/s11205-008-9353-1|s2cid=144780750|quote=a second place ranking in the 2000 Economist's world healthcare ranking}}</ref> and [[Human development (economics)|human development]].{{efn |name="HDI-1" |The UN [[China and the United Nations|does not consider]] the Republic of China as a [[sovereign state]]. The HDI report does not include Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China when calculating mainland China's figures.<ref name="HDI-2">{{cite web|url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Readers_reprint.pdf|title=- Human Development Reports|website=hdr.undp.org}}</ref> Taiwan's government calculated its HDI to be 0.907 based on UNDP's 2010 methodology, which would rank it 21st, between Austria and Luxembourg in the UN list dated 14 September 2018.<ref name="HDI-3">{{cite web|url=http://eng.stat.gov.tw/public/data/dgbas03/bs2/gender/International%20Gender/%E4%BA%BA%E9%A1%9E%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B8.xls|format=Excel|script-title=zh:2018中華民國人類發展指數(HDI)|access-date=12 November 2018|year=2018|publisher=Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.|language=zh-hant|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811222036/http://eng.stat.gov.tw/public/data/dgbas03/bs2/gender/International%20Gender/%E4%BA%BA%E9%A1%9E%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B8.xls|archive-date=11 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="HDI-4">{{cite web |title=Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update |url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_development_statistical_update.pdf |publisher=[[United Nations Development Programme]] |oclc=1061292121 |access-date=9 December 2018 |date=14 September 2018}}</ref> |group="nb"}}<ref name="HDI 2019"/>
The [[political status of Taiwan]] is contentious.<ref name="hor21" /> The ROC no longer represents China as a member of the [[United Nations]], after UN members voted in 1971 to [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|recognize the PRC]] instead.<ref name="woo21">{{cite news |title=What is behind the China-Taiwan dispute? |date=2021-11-27 |first=Richard |last=Wood |work=9News |publisher=Nine Entertainment Company |url=https://www.9news.com.au/world/china-taiwan-tensions-explainer-what-is-behind-long-running-dispute/04749e94-19c6-4dc2-9482-1061bde59e87 |access-date=2021-11-27 |quote=Experts agree a direct conflict is unlikely, but as the future of self-ruled Taiwan increasingly becomes a powder keg, a mishap or miscalculation could lead to confrontation while Chinese and American ambitions are at odds. }}</ref> Meanwhile, the ROC continued to claim to be the [[Two Chinas|legitimate representative of China]] and its territory, although this has been downplayed since its democratization in the 1990s. Taiwan is claimed by the PRC, which refuses diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the ROC. Taiwan [[foreign relations of Taiwan|maintains official diplomatic relations]] with 14 out of 193 UN member states and the [[Holy See]],<ref name="woo21" /><ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/solomon-islands-ends-diplomatic-ties-with-taiwan-stands-by-china-11568642229|title=Solomon Islands Ends Diplomatic Ties with Taiwan, Stands by China|last=Dou|first=Eva|website=The Wall Street Journal|date=16 September 2019|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/kiribati-to-switch-diplomatic-ties-from-taiwan-to-china/11532192|title=Kiribati cuts ties with Taiwan in diplomatic switch to China days after Solomon Islands pivot|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=20 September 2019|access-date=20 September 2019}}</ref> though many others maintain unofficial diplomatic ties with Taiwan through [[Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office|representative offices]] and institutions that function as [[de facto embassy#Taiwan|''de facto'' embassies and consulates]]. International organisations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only on a non-state basis under various names. Domestically, the major political contention is between parties favouring eventual [[Chinese unification]] and promoting a pan-Chinese identity contrasted with those [[Taiwan independence movement|aspiring to formal international recognition]] and promoting a [[Taiwanese people#The current state of Taiwanese identity|Taiwanese identity]], although both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal.<ref>{{cite book |title=Party Politics in Taiwan |given=Dafydd |surname=Fell |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-134-24021-0 |page=85 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |given1=Christopher H. |surname1=Achen |given2=T. Y. |surname2=Wang |chapter=The Taiwan Voter: An Introduction |pages=1–25 |editor-given1=Christopher H. |editor-surname1=Achen |editor-given2=T. Y. |editor-surname2=Wang |title=The Taiwan Voter |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2017 |doi=10.3998/mpub.9375036 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-0-472-07353-5 }} pp. 1–2.</ref>
==Name==
{{See also|Chinese Taipei|Names of China|China and the United Nations}}
Various names for the island of Taiwan remain in use, each derived from explorers or rulers during a particular historical period. The name [[Formosa]] ({{lang|zh-hant|[[:wikt:福爾摩沙|福爾摩沙]]}}) dates from 1542, when [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] sailors sighted an uncharted island and noted it on their maps as ''Ilha Formosa'' ("beautiful island").<ref name="yb:history">{{cite book |chapter=Chapter 3: History |chapter-url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/docs/ch03.pdf |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2011 |year=2011 |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514004941/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/docs/ch03.pdf |archive-date=14 May 2012 |page=46}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ilha Formosa: the Emergence of Taiwan on the World Scene in the 17th Century |url=https://www.npm.gov.tw/exhbition/formosa/english/02.htm |website=npm.gov.tw}}</ref> The name ''Formosa'' eventually "replaced all others in European literature"{{attribution needed|date=December 2018}}{{sfnp|Davidson|1903|p=10|ps=: "A Dutch navigating officer named [[Jan Huyghen van Linschoten|{{sic|Linsc|hotten|nolink=y}}]], employed by the Portuguese, so recorded the island in his charts, and eventually the name of Formosa, so euphonious and yet appropriate, replaced all others in European literature."}} and remained in common use among English speakers into the 20th century.<ref>see for example:
* {{cite book |title=Sketches from Formosa |year=1915 |last=Campbell |first=William |author-link=William_Campbell_(missionary) |publisher=Marshall Brothers |location=London |url=https://archive.org/stream/sketchesfromtaiw00camprich#page/278/mode/2up |ol=7051071M }}
* {{harvp|Campbell|1903}}
* {{harvp|Davidson|1903}}</ref>
In the early 17th century, the [[Dutch East India Company]] established a commercial post at [[Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)|Fort Zeelandia]] (modern-day [[Anping District|Anping]], [[Tainan]]) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",{{sfnp|Valentijn|1903|p=52}} after their [[ethnonym]] for a nearby [[Taiwanese indigenous peoples|Taiwanese aboriginal]] tribe, possibly [[Taivoan people]], written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as ''Taiouwang'', ''Tayowan'', ''Teijoan'', etc.<ref name="Mair">{{cite web |last=Mair |first=V. H. |author-link=Victor H. Mair |year=2003 |title=How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language |url=http://pinyin.info/readings/mair/taiwanese.html |quote=The true derivation of the name "Taiwan" is actually from the ethnonym of a tribe in the southwest part of the island in the area around Ping'an. As early as 1636, a Dutch missionary referred to this group as Taiouwang. From the name of the tribe, the Portuguese called the area around Ping'an as Tayowan, Taiyowan, Tyovon, Teijoan, Toyouan, and so forth. Indeed, already in his ship's log of 1622, the Dutchman Cornelis Reijersen referred to the area as Teijoan and Taiyowan. }}</ref> This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, [[Hokkien]], as {{zh|poj={{linktext|Tāi-oân}}/{{linktext|Tâi-oân}}}}) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is written in different transliterations ({{lang|zh-hant|{{linktext|大員}}, {{linktext|大圓}}, {{linktext|大灣}}, {{linktext|臺員}}, {{linktext|臺圓}}}} and {{lang|zh-hant|{{linktext|臺窩灣}}}}) in Chinese historical records. The area occupied by modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by both European colonists and Chinese immigrants. The settlement grew to be the island's most important trading centre and served as its capital until 1887.
Use of the current Chinese name ({{lang|zh-hant|{{linktext|臺灣}}/{{linktext|台灣}}}}) became official as early as 1684 with the establishment of [[Taiwan Prefecture]] which centred in modern-day Tainan. Through its rapid development the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".<ref name="蔡玉仙等編">{{cite book |script-title=zh:府城文史 | editor=蔡玉仙 |display-editors=etal |year=2007 |publisher=[[Tainan City Government]] |language=zh |isbn=978-986-00-9434-3}}</ref><ref name="石守謙主編">{{cite book |editor=Shih Shou-chien |editor-link=Shih Shou-chien |year=2003 |trans-title = Ilha Formosa: the Emergence of Taiwan on the World Scene in the 17th Century |script-title=zh:福爾摩沙 : 十七世紀的臺灣、荷蘭與東亞 |language=zh |publisher = National Palace Museum |place=Taipei |isbn=978-957-562-441-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kato |first=Mitsutaka |orig-year=1940 |year=2007 |script-title =zh:昨日府城 明星台南: 發現日治下的老臺南 |language=zh |translator=黃秉珩 |publisher=臺南市文化資產保護協會 |isbn=978-957-28079-9-6}}</ref><ref name="Oosterhoff">{{cite book |title=Colonial Cities: Essays on Urbanism in a Colonial Context |editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last=Ross |editor2-first=Gerard J. |editor2-last=Telkamp |chapter=Zeelandia, a Dutch colonial city on Formosa (1624–1662) |first=J.L. |last=Oosterhoff |pages=51–62 |publisher=Springer |year=1985 |isbn=978-90-247-2635-6}}</ref>
In his ''[[Daoyi Zhilüe]]'' (1349), [[Wang Dayuan]] used "[[Liuqiu (medieval)|Liuqiu]]" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it closest to [[Penghu]].{{sfnp|Thompson|1964|p=166}}
Elsewhere, the name was used for the [[Ryukyu Islands]] in general or [[Okinawa]], the largest of them; indeed the name ''Ryūkyū'' is the Japanese form of ''Liúqiú''. The name also appears in the ''[[Book of Sui]]'' (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even [[Luzon]].{{sfnp|Thompson|1964|p=163}}
The official name of the country in English is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" (''{{lang|zh-Latn-TW|Zhōngguó}}'' ({{nowrap|{{lang|zh-Hant-TW|{{linktext|中國}}}}}})) to refer to itself, which derives from ''{{lang|zh-latn-pinyin|zhōng}}'' ("central" or "middle") and ''{{lang|zh-latn-pinyin|guó}}'' ("state, nation-state"),{{efn|Although this is the present meaning of ''{{lang|zh-latn-pinyin|guó}}'', in [[Old Chinese]] (when its pronunciation was something like {{nowrap|/*qʷˤək/}})<ref name=bs>[[Reconstructions of Old Chinese|Baxter-Sagart]].</ref> it meant the walled city of the Chinese and the areas they could control from them.<ref name=wilx/>}} a term which also developed under the [[Zhou dynasty]] in reference to its [[demesne|royal demesne]],{{efn|Its use is attested from the 6th-century [[Classic of History]], which states "[[Tian (god)|Huangtian]] bestowed the lands and the peoples of the central state to the ancestors" ({{lang|zh|皇天既付中國民越厥疆土于先王}}).<ref>{{lang|zh|[[:s:zh:尚書|《尚書》]], [[:s:zh:尚書/梓材|梓材]].}} {{in lang|zh}}</ref>}} and the name was then applied to the area around [[Luoyi]] (present-day Luoyang) during the [[Eastern Zhou]] and then to China's [[Central Plain (China)|Central Plain]] before being used as an occasional synonym for the state during the [[Qing dynasty|Qing era]].<ref name=wilx>{{citation |last=Wilkinson |first=Endymion |title=Chinese History: A Manual |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC |year=2000 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |series=Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph No. 52 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC&pg=PA132 132] |isbn=978-0-674-00249-4 }}</ref>
During the 1950s and 1960s, after the ROC government had withdrawn to Taiwan upon losing the [[Chinese Civil War]], it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "[[Free area of the Republic of China|Free China]]") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "[[China|Red China]]").<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garver|first=John W. |title=The Sino-American Alliance: Nationalist China and American Cold War Strategy in Asia|publisher=M.E. Sharp|date=April 1997|isbn=978-0-7656-0025-7}}</ref> It was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when the ROC [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|lost its seat]] to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the main island. In some contexts, including ROC government publications, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.president.gov.tw/|title=Office of President of the Republic of China (Taiwan)|access-date=15 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.taiwan.gov.tw/about.php|title=Government Portal of the Republic of China (Taiwan)|access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=President Tsai interviewed by BBC |url=https://english.president.gov.tw/News/5962 |access-date=16 June 2020 |work=Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) |date=18 January 2020 |quote=Well, the idea is that we don't have a need to declare ourselves an independent state. We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China (Taiwan)}}</ref>
The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "[[Chinese Taipei]]" as a compromise with the People's Republic of China (PRC). For instance, it is the name under which it has participated in the [[Chinese Taipei at the 1984 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]] as well as the [[World Trade Organization]]. In 2009, after reaching an agreement with Beijing, the ROC participated in the [[World Health Organization]] for the first time in 38 years, under the name "Chinese Taipei".<ref name="WHO2009">{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLI62888|title=Taiwan hopes WHO assembly will help boost its profile|last=Reid|first=Katie|work=Reuters|date=18 May 2009|access-date=11 June 2013|archive-date=15 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015040228/http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/18/idUSLI62888|url-status=live}}</ref> "Taiwan authorities" is sometimes used by the PRC to refer to the current government in Taiwan.<ref name="PRCNorway"/>
==History==
{{Main|History of Taiwan|History of the Republic of China}}
{{hatnote|See the [[History of China]] article for historical information in [[mainland China]] before 1949.}}
===Early settlement (to 1683)===
{{Main|Prehistory of Taiwan|Dutch Formosa|Spanish Formosa|Kingdom of Middag|Kingdom of Tungning}}
[[File:Tsou youth of Taiwan (pre-1945).jpg|thumb|upright|A young [[Tsou people|Tsou]] man]]
Taiwan was joined to the Asian mainland in the [[Late Pleistocene]], until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago.<ref name="GillespieGillespie2009">{{cite book|author1=Rosemary Gillespie|author2=Rosemary G. Gillespie|author3=D. A. Clague|title=Encyclopedia of Islands|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9ZogGs_fz8C&pg=PA904|year=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25649-1|page=904}}</ref> Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artifacts of a [[Paleolithic]] culture.<ref name="PrasetyoNastiti2021">{{cite book|author1=Bagyo Prasetyo|author2=Titi Surti Nastiti|author3=Truman Simanjuntak|title=AUSTRONESIAN DIASPORA: A New Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFwXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|year=2021|publisher=UGM PRESS|isbn=978-602-386-202-3|page=125}}</ref><ref name="palaeolithic">{{cite journal |last1=Olsen |first1=John W. |last2=Miller-Antonio |first2=Sari |title=The Palaeolithic in Southern China |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=129–160 |year=1992 |url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/17011 |hdl=10125/17011}}</ref>{{sfnp|Jiao|2007|pp=89–90}}
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from what is now southeast China.{{sfnp|Jiao|2007|pp=91–94}}
They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese indigenous peoples, whose languages belong to the [[Austronesian language family]], but show much greater diversity than the [[Malayo-Polynesian languages|rest of the family]], which spans a huge area from [[Maritime Southeast Asia]] west to [[Madagascar]] and east as far as [[New Zealand]], Hawaii and [[Easter Island]]. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the [[urheimat]] of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.<ref name="ref1">{{cite journal |title=Taiwan's gift to the world |last=Diamond |first=Jared M |author-link=Jared Diamond |year=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060916193454/http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/pacificarchwin06/readings/Diamond%20nature%202000.pdf |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/pacificarchwin06/readings/Diamond%20nature%202000.pdf |archive-date=16 September 2006 |journal=Nature |volume=403 |pages=709–710 |doi=10.1038/35001685 |pmid=10693781 |issue=6771 |bibcode=2000Natur.403..709D|s2cid=4379227 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last=Fox |first=James J |url=https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/43158/2/Comparative_Austronesian_Studies.pdf |title=Current Developments in Comparative Austronesian Studies |book-title=Symposium Austronesia |location=Universitas Udayana, Bali |year=2004}}</ref>
[[Han Chinese]] fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century.<ref name="shep">{{cite book |last=Shepherd |given=John R. |title=Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600–1800 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1993 |pages=7–8 |isbn=978-0-8047-2066-3}} Reprinted Taipei: SMC Publishing, 1995.</ref> Hostile tribes, and a lack of valuable trade products, meant that few outsiders visited the main island until the 16th century.<ref name="shep"/> During the 16th century, visits to the coast by fishermen and traders from Fujian, as well as Chinese and Japanese pirates, became more frequent.<ref name="shep"/>
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but was [[Sino–Dutch conflicts|driven off by Ming forces]].{{sfnp|Wills|2006|p=88}}
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at [[Anping, Tainan]].<ref name="Oosterhoff" />
When the Dutch arrived, they found southwestern Taiwan already frequented by a mostly-transient Chinese population numbering close to 1,500.{{sfnp|Andrade|2008|loc=Chapter 6 Note 5}} David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 [[chiefdom]]s ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, including the [[Kingdom of Middag]] in the central western plains, while others remained independent.<ref name="Oosterhoff" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Formosa Under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records, with Explanatory Notes and a Bibliography of the Island |year=1903 |first=William |last=Campbell |author-link=William Campbell (missionary)|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner |url=https://archive.org/details/formosaunderdut01campgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/formosaunderdut01campgoog/page/n185 6]–7 |isbn=9789576380839 }}</ref> The Company encouraged farmers to immigrate from [[Fujian]] and work the lands under Dutch control.{{sfn|Andrade|2008|loc=Chapter 6}} By the 1660s, some 30,000 to 50,000 Chinese were living on the island.{{sfnp|Wills|2006|p=98}}
[[File:Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem - Taioan.jpg|left|thumb|[[Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)|Fort Zeelandia]], the [[Governor of Formosa|Governor]]'s residence in Dutch Formosa]]
In 1626, the [[Spanish Empire]] landed on and occupied northern Taiwan as a trading base, first at [[Keelung]] and in 1628 building [[Fort San Domingo]] at [[Tamsui]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Fort San Domingo |url=https://en.tshs.ntpc.gov.tw/xmdoc/cont?xsmsid=0G292396897604829770 |publisher=Tamsui Historical Museum |access-date=30 October 2020 |quote=Fort San Domingo, located at the hilltop overlooking Tamsui River estuary, was established by the Spanish in 1628.}}</ref> This colony lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.{{sfnp|Wills|2006|p=91}} The Dutch then marched south, subduing hundreds of villages in the western plains between their new possessions in the north and their base at Tayouan.{{sfnp|Wills|2006|p=91}}
Following the fall of the [[Ming dynasty]] in Beijing in 1644, [[Koxinga]] (Zheng Chenggong) pledged allegiance to the [[Yongli Emperor]] of [[Southern Ming]] and attacked the Qing dynasty along the southeastern coast of China.<ref name="LuWangNMHTW">{{cite web |url=https://tainanstudy.nmth.gov.tw/article/detail/9/read? |script-title=zh:臺南與鄭成功 |trans-title=Tainan and Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) |author=Yan Xing |website=Tainan Literature and History Research Database |publisher=National Museum of Taiwan History |access-date=12 February 2021 |script-quote=zh:這時成功意志堅决，便單獨倡導拒滿復明運動，以金，厦兩島爲根據地地，不斷地向閩，浙東南一進攻，奉永明王永曆正朔 ... 于永曆十一年（清順治十四年公元一六五七年）受永水明王封為延平王 |trans-quote=Then Chenggong (Koxinga) resolutely and independently advocated for the movement to resist the Manchus and restore Ming, with bases in Kinmen and Xiamen continuously attacked southeastern Min (Fujian) and Zhejiang, pledged to serve the Youngli emperor of Ming ... in 1657 was conferred the title King of Yanping by the Yong Ming emperor}}.</ref> In 1661, under increasing Qing pressure, he moved his forces from his base in [[Xiamen]] to Taiwan, [[Siege of Fort Zeelandia|expelling the Dutch]] in the following year. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some analysts consider his regime to be loyal to the Ming, while others argue that he acted as an independent ruler and his intentions were unclear.<ref name="TWG2020">{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=September 2020 |title=2020-2021 Taiwan at a Glance |url=https://multilingual.mofa.gov.tw/web/web_UTF-8/MOFA/glance2020-2021/2020-2021%20Taiwan%20at%20a%20Glance%20(English).pdf |location=Taiwan |publisher= Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan) |page=14 |isbn=978-986-5447-15-1}}</ref>{{sfnp|Andrade|2008|loc=Preface Note 1|ps=: "Second, this book is also about how Taiwan first came under Chinese political control, thanks to the Ming loyalist regime of Zheng Chenggong."}}{{sfnp|Wills|2006|pp=94–95}}<ref>{{cite book |surname=Struve |given=Lynn |year=1988 |chapter=The Southern Ming |title=Cambridge History of China, Volume 7, The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644 |editor1-given=Frederic W. |editor1-surname=Mote |editor2-given=Denis |editor2-surname=Twitchett |pages=641–725 |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-24332-2 }} pp. 722–725.</ref>
After being ousted from Taiwan, the Dutch allied with the new Qing dynasty in China against the Zheng regime in Taiwan. Following some skirmishes the Dutch retook the northern fortress at Keelung in 1664.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wills |first1=John E. |title=The Dutch Reoccupation of Chi-lung, 1664–1668 |year=2001 |publisher=University of California |location=California |isbn=9780936127095}}</ref> Zheng Jing sent troops to dislodge the Dutch, but they were unsuccessful. The Dutch held out at Keelung until 1668, when aborigine resistance,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=g3oWoSKVnVIC&pg=PA95&dq=pescadores+dutch+defeat&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R-y2VI3TG8S4ggS3oIL4DA&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=pescadores%20dutch%20defeat&f=false Shepherd 1993], p. 95.</ref> and the lack of progress in retaking any other parts of the island persuaded the colonial authorities to abandon this final stronghold and withdraw from Taiwan altogether.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Blussé|first1=Leonard|title=Pioneers or cattle for the slaughterhouse? A rejoinder to A.R.T. Kemasang|journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde|date=1 January 1989|volume=145|issue=2|page=357|doi=10.1163/22134379-90003260}}</ref>
===Qing rule (1683–1895)===
{{Main|Taiwan under Qing rule}}
[[File:Taiwanese aboriginese deerhunt1.png|thumb|upright|Hunting deer, painted in 1746]]
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral [[Shi Lang]] of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and what was considered "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming [[sinicized]] while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between different ethnic groups of Han Chinese, Quanzhou Minnanese feuding with Zhangzhou and Hakkas peasants, and major clan fights between Minnans (Hoklos), Hakkas and aborigines too.
There were more than a hundred rebellions, riots, and instances of civil strife during the Qing's administration, including the [[Lin Shuangwen rebellion]] (1786–1788). Their frequency was evoked by the common saying "every three years an uprising, every five years a rebellion" (三年一反、五年一亂), primarily in reference to the period between 1820 and 1850.<ref>{{Cite book | title = The Indigenous Dynamic in Taiwan's Postwar Development: The Religious and Historical Roots of Entrepreneurship | last = Skoggard | first = Ian A. | isbn =9781563248467 | ol=979742M | year = 1996 | publisher = M.E. Sharpe}} p. 10</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.taiwanus.net/history/3/12.htm|script-title=zh:三年小反五年大亂|language=zh-tw|website=台灣海外網}}</ref><ref name="RebellionTWCulture">{{cite web |url=http://nrch.culture.tw/twpedia.aspx?id=3553 |trans-title=Civil Strife |script-title=zh:民變 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Encyclopedia of Taiwan (台灣大百科) |publisher=Taiwan Ministry of Culture |access-date=28 February 2021 |trans-quote=The rumor of "every three years a small uprising, five years a large rebellion" circulated around Taiwan. According to research, the repeated commotions described by this idiom occurred primarily during the 30-year period between 1820 and 1850. |script-quote=zh:臺灣有「三年一小反，五年一大反」之謠。但是根據研究，這句俗諺所形容民變迭起的現象，以道光朝（1820-1850）的三十多年間為主}}.</ref>
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the [[Sino-French War]] (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were [[Battle of Tamsui|repulsed from Tamsui]] a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the [[Keelung Campaign]] ended in stalemate. The [[Pescadores campaign (1885)|Pescadores Campaign]], beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from being the Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian Province to [[Taiwan Province#History|Fujian-Taiwan-Province]], the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at [[Taipei]]. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railway.{{sfnp|Davidson|1903|pp=247, 620}}
===Japanese rule (1895–1945)===
{{Main|Taiwan under Japanese rule}}
[[File:Xilaian Incident.jpg|thumb|Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the [[Tapani Incident]] in 1915 from the [[Tainan]] jail to court.]]
Following Qing's defeat in the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895), Taiwan, its associated islands, and the Penghu archipelago were ceded to the [[Empire of Japan]] by the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]], along with other concessions.<ref name="ShimonosekiROC">{{cite web |url=http://libdb1.npm.gov.tw/ttscgi/capimg2.exe?20:268540019:910000115001-0-0.pdf |title= Treaty of Peace between China and Japan (Treaty of Shimonoseki) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=17 April 1895 |website=Ch'ing Dynasty Treaties and Agreements Preserved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) |publisher=National Palace Museum |access-date=10 February 2021 |script-quote=zh:中國將管理下開地方之權並將該地方所有堡壘軍器工廠及一切屬公物件永遠讓於日本...台湾全岛及所有附属各岛屿...澎湖列岛 |trans-quote=China shall yield to Japan in perpetuity the rights to administer the following regions as well as all fortresses, munition factories, and public properties thereof ... the entire island of Taiwan and all appertaining islands ... Penghu archipelago}}.</ref> Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Ryōtarō|last1=Shiba|author-link=Ryōtarō Shiba|script-title=ja:台湾紀行: 街道をゆく〈40〉|language=ja |title=Taiwan kikō : kaidō o yuku yonjū |date=1995|publisher=Asahi Shinbunsha|location=Tōkyō|isbn=978-4-02-256808-3}}</ref> On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the [[Republic of Formosa]] to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.<ref>{{cite book | title=Memories of the future: national identity issues and the search for a new Taiwan | editor-first=Stéphane | editor-last=Corcuff | publisher=M.E. Sharpe | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-7656-0792-8 | chapter=The Taiwan Republic of 1895 and the failure of the Qing modernizing project | first=Andrew | last=Morris | pages=3–24 }}</ref> Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5 per cent of the population.<ref name = msu>{{cite web | title = History of Taiwan | work = Windows on Asia | publisher = Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901122350/http://www.asia.msu.edu/eastasia/Taiwan/history.html| url = http://www.asia.msu.edu/eastasia/Taiwan/history.html |archive-date=1 September 2006| access-date = 3 December 2014 }}</ref> Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the [[Beipu uprising]] of 1907, the [[Tapani incident]] of 1915, and the [[Wushe incident|Musha incident]] of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railways and other transport networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal [[education in Taiwan|education system in Taiwan]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Going to school in East Asia | editor1-first=Gerard A. | editor1-last=Postiglione | editor2-first=Jason | editor2-last=Tan | publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-313-33633-1 | chapter=Schooling in Taiwan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419122101/http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~iaezcpc/Going%20to%20School%20in%20East%20Asia%20--%20SCHOOLING%20IN%20TAIWAN.htm| chapter-url=http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~iaezcpc/Going%20to%20School%20in%20East%20Asia%20--%20SCHOOLING%20IN%20TAIWAN.htm|archive-date=19 April 2010 | first1=Chuing Prudence | last1=Chou | first2=Ai-Hsin | last2=Ho | pages=344–377 }}</ref> Japanese rule ended the practice of [[headhunting]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hsu|first=Mutsu|year=1991|title=Culture, Self and Adaptation: The Psychological Anthropology of Two Malayo-Polynesian Groups in Taiwan|publisher=Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica|location=Taipei, Taiwan|isbn=978-957-9046-78-7}}</ref> During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan, and the production of [[cash crop]]s such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh-greatest sugar producer in the world.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2001 |date=2001 |chapter=History |chapter-url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2001/chpt04-3.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031027032513/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2001/chpt04-3.htm |archive-date=27 October 2003 |publisher=Government Information Office}}</ref> Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.<ref>{{cite book |title=Tropics of Savagery: The Culture of Japanese Empire in Comparative Frame |first=Robert |last=Tierney |publisher=University of California Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-520-94766-5 |pages=8–9 }}</ref> Intellectuals and labourers who participated in left-wing movements within Taiwan were also arrested and massacred (e.g. [[Chiang Wei-shui]] and [[Masanosuke Watanabe]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guancha.cn/Lv-Zhenghui/2014_10_18_277323.shtml |script-title=zh:吕正惠：战后台湾左翼思想状况漫谈一——日本剥削下的台湾社会 |date= 18 November 2014}}</ref>
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide [[Japanization|assimilation project]] to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt [[Japanese surname]]s.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130731160817/http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/en/content?ID=3803 Kominka Movement – 台灣大百科全書 Encyclopedia of Taiwan]. Taiwanpedia.culture.tw (5 August 2013). Retrieved 25 August 2013.</ref> By 1938, 309,000 [[Japanese people|Japanese settlers]] resided in Taiwan.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Formosa (Taiwan) Under Japanese Rule|first=A. J.|last=Grajdanzev|journal=Pacific Affairs|volume=15|year=1942|pages=311–324|jstor=2752241|issue=3|doi=10.2307/2752241}}</ref>
Taiwan held strategic wartime importance as Imperial Japanese military campaigns first expanded and then contracted over the course of [[World War II]]. The [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] operated heavily from Taiwanese ports. The "[[The Japanese Navy Taiwan and South Pacific Mandate political project|South Strike Group]]" was based at the [[Taihoku Imperial University]] in Taipei. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, such as Kaohsiung and Keelung, became targets of heavy raids by [[Raid on Taipei|American bombers]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Shu LinKou Air Station: World War II|url=http://shulinkou.tripod.com/dawg2e.html|publisher=Ken Ashley, U.S. military photo archives|access-date=14 June 2011}}</ref> In October 1944 the [[Formosa Air Battle]] was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan.
During the course of World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.<ref>{{cite web|year=2007 |title=History |work=Oversea Office Republic of China (Taiwan) |url=http://www.roc-taiwan.org/ct.asp?xItem=456&CtNode=2243&mp=1&xp1= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070328070813/http://www.roc-taiwan.org/ct.asp?xItem=456&CtNode=2243&mp=1&xp1= |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 March 2007 |access-date=2 July 2007 }}</ref> In 1944, Lee Teng-hui, who would become Taiwan's president later in life, volunteered for service in the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] and became a [[second lieutenant]].<ref>{{cite journal|author-link1=J. Bruce Jacobs |last1=Jacobs |first1=J. Bruce |last2=Liu |first2=I-hao Ben |title = Lee Teng-Hui and the Idea of "Taiwan" |journal=The China Quarterly |date=June 2007 |volume=190 |issue=190 |pages=375–393 |doi=10.1017/S0305741007001245 |jstor = 20192775 |s2cid=154384016 }}</ref> His elder brother, Lee Teng-chin (李登欽), also volunteered for the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] and died in [[Battle of Manila (1945)|Manila]].<ref name=pdo201011030c>{{cite news |script-title=zh:再發"參拜靖國神社"論 李登輝媚日情結大起底 3 November 2010 | date=3 November 2010 | access-date=1 October 2012 | url = http://tw.news.chinayes.com/Content/20101103/kccs09xiiw6ps_3.shtml | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130102050033/http://tw.news.chinayes.com/Content/20101103/kccs09xiiw6ps_3.shtml | url-status=dead | archive-date=2 January 2013 |newspaper = [[People's Daily]] |via = 兩岸網 }}</ref> In addition, over 2,000 women, euphemistically called "[[comfort women]]", were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops.<ref>{{cite web |title=Protesters demand justice from Japan on 'comfort women' (update) {{!}} Society – FOCUS TAIWAN – CNA ENGLISH NEWS |url=http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201308140029.aspx |website=focustaiwan.tw}}</ref>
After Japan's surrender ended World War II, most of Taiwan's approximately 300,000 Japanese residents were [[World War II evacuation and expulsion|expelled and sent to Japan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morris|first=Andrew D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqwKCgAAQBAJ|title=Japanese Taiwan: Colonial Rule and its Contested Legacy|date=30 July 2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4725-7674-3|pages=115–118|language=en}}</ref>
===Republic of China (1945–1949)===
{{Main|Republic of China (1912–1949)}}
[[File:Ando Rikichi surrender.jpg|thumb|General [[Chen Yi (Kuomintang)|Chen Yi]] (right) accepting the receipt of [[General Order No. 1]] from [[Rikichi Andō]] (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in [[Zhongshan Hall|Taipei City Hall]]]]
While Taiwan was still under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was founded on the mainland on 1 January 1912, following the [[Xinhai Revolution]], which began with the [[Wuchang uprising]] on 10 October 1911, replacing the Qing dynasty and ending over two thousand years of [[Dynasties in Chinese history|imperial rule]] in China.<ref name="cuhk">{{cite book |title=China, Fiver thousand years of History and Civilization|date=2007|publisher=City University Of Hong Kong Press|page=116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z-fAxn_9f8wC&pg=PA116|access-date=9 September 2014|isbn=978-962-937-140-1}}</ref> From its founding until 1949 it was based in mainland China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to [[Warlord Era|warlordism]] (1915–28), [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Japanese invasion]] (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–50), with central authority strongest during the [[Nanjing decade]] (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) under an [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] [[one-party state]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Denny |title=Taiwan: A Political History |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2003 |location=Ithaca, New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn/page/55 55], 56 |url=https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn|url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8014-8805-4}}</ref>
After the [[Surrender of Japan]] on 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Powers]], as part of [[General Order No. 1]] for temporary military occupation.{{cn|date=November 2021}} General [[Rikichi Andō]], governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "[[Retrocession Day|Taiwan Retrocession Day]]", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the [[Treaty of San Francisco]] took effect.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1955/may/04/far-east-formosa-and-the-pescadores#S5CV0540P0_19550504_HOC_582|title=Far East (Formosa and the Pescadores)|journal=Hansard |volume=540|date=4 May 1955|quote=The sovereignty was Japanese until 1952. The Japanese Treaty came into force, and at that time Formosa was being administered by the Chinese Nationalists, to whom it was entrusted in 1945, as a military occupation.|access-date=1 September 2010 |issue=cc1870–4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Resolving Cross-Strait Relations Between China and Taiwan|first1=Jonathan I. |last1=Charney |first2=J. R. V.|last2=Prescott|journal=American Journal of International Law|volume=94 |issue=3 |year=2000 |pages=453–477|quote=After occupying Taiwan in 1945 as a result of Japan's surrender, the Nationalists were defeated on the mainland in 1949, abandoning it to retreat to Taiwan.|jstor=2555319|doi=10.2307/2555319|s2cid=144402230 }}</ref> In the [[1943 Cairo Declaration]], US, UK, and ROC representatives specified territories such as Formosa and the Pescadores to be restored by Japan to the Republic of China.<ref name="Cairo1943">{{cite web |url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/e/shiryo/01/002_46shoshi.html |title=Cairo Communiqué, December 1, 1943 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Birth of the Constitution of Japan |publisher=Nationa Diet Library |access-date=29 November 2021 |quote=It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.}}</ref> Its terms were later referred to in the [[Potsdam Declaration|1945 Potsdam Declaration]],<ref name="Potsdam1945">{{cite web |url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/potsdam-declaration |title=Potsdam Declaration |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=The Atomic Heritage Foundation |publisher=The Atomic Heritage Foundation and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History |access-date=29 November 2021 |quote=The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.}}</ref> whose provisions Japan agreed to carry out in its [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|instrument of surrender]].<ref name="JapanSurrender">{{cite web |url=https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/japanese-instrument-surrender-1945/ |title=Japanese Instrument of Surrender |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=The National Archives Foundation |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=29 November 2021 |quote=We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese Government and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration in good faith}}</ref> Due to disagreements over which government (PRC or ROC) to invite, China did not attend the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, whereby Japan renounced all titles and claims to Formosa and the Pescadores without specifying to whom they were surrendered.<ref name="SanFrancisco1951">{{cite web |url=https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20136/volume-136-I-1832-English.pdf |title=Treaty of Peace with Japan |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=United Nations Treaties Collection |publisher=The United Nations |access-date=29 November 2021}}</ref> In 1952, Japan and the ROC signed the [[Treaty of Taipei]], recognizing that all treaties concluded before December 9, 1941 between China and Japan have become null and void.<ref name="Taipei1952">{{cite web |url=https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20138/v138.pdf |title=Treaty of Peace between the Repuiblic of China and Japan |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=United Nations Treaties Collection |publisher=The United Nations |access-date=29 November 2021}}</ref> Interpretations of these documents and their legal implications give rise to the debate over the [[political status of Taiwan|sovereignty status of Taiwan]].
The ROC administration of Taiwan under [[Chen Yi (Kuomintang)|Chen Yi]] was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as [[hyperinflation]]. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the Chinese Communist Party also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.cqvip.com/QK/82017X/201704/671820046.html|script-title=zh:对台湾"228事件"性质与影响的再认识 |language=zh-Hans|journal=China Today |volume=64|issue=4 |page=64 |date=1 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=This Is the Shame |date=10 June 1946 |newspaper=Time |location = New York |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792979,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105114338/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792979,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 January 2007}}</ref> The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the [[February 28 Incident]]. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.<ref>{{cite news |title=China: Snow Red & Moon Angel |date=7 April 1947 |newspaper=Time | location = New York |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804090,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070111074426/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804090,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shackleton |first1=Allan J. |year=1998 |title=Formosa Calling: An Eyewitness Account of Conditions in Taiwan during the February 28th, 1947 Incident |url=http://homepage.usask.ca/~llr130/taiwanlibrary/formosacalling/formosa-calling.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205010159/http://homepage.usask.ca/~llr130/taiwanlibrary/formosacalling/formosa-calling.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 February 2011 |location=Upland, California |publisher=Taiwan Publishing Company |oclc=40888167 |access-date=18 December 2014 }}</ref>
[[File:Movement KMTretreat.svg|thumb|left|The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei]]
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Generalissimo [[Chiang Kai-shek]], and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP), led by [[Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]]. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital [[Nanjing]] on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kubek|first=Anthony |title=How the Far East was lost: American policy and the creation of Communist China|year=1963|isbn=978-0-85622-000-5}}</ref>
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang [[Retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan|evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan]] and made Taipei the [[temporary capital]] of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).<ref name="wartime-capital">{{cite web|author-link=Huang Fu-san |last=Huang |first=Fu-san |year=2010 |url=http://info.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=27358&CtNode=2527&mp=21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429070335/http://info.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=27358&CtNode=2527&mp=21 |archive-date=29 April 2011 |script-title=zh:臺灣簡史－麻雀變鳳凰的故事 |language=zh |trans-title=A Brief History of Taiwan: A Sparrow Transformed into a Phoenix |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China|access-date=13 September 2009|quote={{lang|zh-hant|1949年，國民政府退守臺灣後，以臺北為戰時首都}}}}</ref> Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. These people came to be known in Taiwan as "[[waisheng ren]]" ({{lang|zh|外省人}}), residents who came to the island in the 1940s and 50s after Japan's surrender, as well as their descendants. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's [[gold reserves]] and foreign currency reserves.<ref name="bbctimeline-retreat">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1949_1955.stm|title=Taiwan Timeline – Retreat to Taiwan|year=2000|work=BBC News|access-date=21 June 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Dunbabin |first=J.P.D. |title=The Cold War |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2008 |page=187 |isbn=978-0-582-42398-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVriqPvx7iwC&pg=PA187 |quote=In 1949 Chiang Kai-shek had transferred to Taiwan the government, gold reserve, and some of the army of his Republic of China.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ng|first=Franklin|title=The Taiwanese Americans|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1998|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPzsB_wJQW0C&pg=PA10|isbn=978-0-313-29762-5}}</ref>
After losing control of mainland China in 1949, the ROC retained control of Taiwan and Penghu ([[Taiwan Province|Taiwan, ROC]]), parts of Fujian ([[Fujian Province, Republic of China|Fujian, ROC]])—specifically Kinmen, [[Wuqiu, Kinmen|Wuqiu]] (now part of Kinmen) and the Matsu Islands and two major [[South China Sea Islands|islands in the South China Sea]] (within the [[Pratas Islands|Dongsha]]/Pratas and [[Spratly Islands|Nansha]]/Spratly island groups). These territories have remained under ROC governance until the present day. The ROC also briefly retained control of the entirety of [[Hainan]] (an island province), parts of [[Zhejiang]] ([[Chekiang Province, Republic of China|Chekiang]])—specifically the [[Dachen Islands]] and [[Yijiangshan Islands]]—and portions of [[Tibet (1912–1951)|Tibet]], [[Qinghai]], [[Xinjiang Province, Republic of China|Sinkiang]] and [[Yunnan]]. The Communists [[battle of Hainan Island|captured Hainan]] in 1950, captured the Dachen Islands and Yijiangshan Islands during the [[First Taiwan Strait Crisis]] in 1955 and defeated the [[Kuomintang Islamic insurgency|ROC revolts in Northwest China]] in 1958. ROC forces in Yunnan province entered Burma and Thailand in the 1950s and [[1960–61 campaign at the China–Burma border|were defeated by Communists in 1961]]. Ever since losing control of mainland China, the Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over 'all of China', which it defined to include mainland China (including Tibet), Taiwan (including Penghu), [[Outer Mongolia]] {{lang|zh|外蒙古}}, and [[administrative divisions of Taiwan|other minor territories]].
=== Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present) ===
{{Main|History of the Republic of China|History of Taiwan (1945–present)}}
====Martial law era (1949–1987)====
{{see also|Martial law in Taiwan|Taiwan Miracle}}
[[File:Chiang Kai-shek in full uniform.jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Chiang Kai-shek]], leader of the [[Kuomintang]] from 1925 until his death in 1975|alt=A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.]]
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,<ref name="martial">{{cite web |publisher=National Archives Administration, National Development Council |url=https://www.archives.gov.tw/Publish.aspx?cnid=1014&p=857 |script-title=zh:三、 台灣戒嚴令 |language=zh |trans-title=III. Decree to establish martial law in Taiwan |date=2 October 2009 |access-date=23 May 2012}}</ref> continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 38 years later, in 1987.<ref name="martial" /> Martial law was used as a way to suppress the political opposition during the years it was active.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm|title=28 February 1947 – Taiwan's Holocaust Remembered – 60th Commemoration|year=2007|publisher=New Taiwan, Ilha Formosa|access-date=2 July 2009}}</ref> During the [[White Terror (Taiwan)|White Terror]], as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20080716-77050.html|title=Taiwan president apologises for 'white terror' era|agency=Reuters|access-date=2 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401191615/http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20080716-77050.html|archive-date=1 April 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Chinese Communist Party. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998, a law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President [[Ma Ying-jeou]] made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there would never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7509805.stm |title=Taiwan sorry for white terror era |first=Caroline |last=Gluck |date=16 July 2008 |work=BBC News |location=London}}</ref>
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between [[North Korea]] and [[South Korea]], which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President [[Harry S. Truman]] intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the [[Taiwan Strait]] to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.<ref name=1950-US-DoD>{{Cite journal|author=US Department of Defense |title=Classified Teletype Conference, dated 27 June 1950, between the Pentagon and General Douglas MacArthur regarding authorization to use naval and air forces in support of South Korea. Papers of Harry S. Truman: Naval Aide Files |publisher=Truman Presidential Library and Museum |year=1950 |url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week1/kw_22_1.htm|page=1 and 4|quote=Page 1: In addition 7th Fleet will take station so as to prevent invasion of Formosa and to insure that Formosa not be used as base of operations against Chinese mainland." Page 4: "Seventh Fleet is hereby assigned to operational control CINCFE for employment in following task hereby assigned CINCFE: By naval and air action prevent any attack on Formosa, or any air or sea offensive from Formosa against mainland of China.}}</ref> In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alagappa|first=Muthiah|title=Taiwan's presidential politics|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=2001|page=265|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Zx7nPeGWgwC&pg=PA265|isbn=978-0-7656-0834-5}}</ref> Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the [[Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty]] and the [[Formosa Resolution of 1955]].
[[File:U.S. President Eisenhower visited TAIWAN 美國總統艾森豪於1960年6月訪問臺灣台北時與蔣中正總統-2.jpg|thumb|left|With Chiang Kai-shek, US president [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] waved to crowds during his visit to [[Taipei]] in June 1960.]]
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous [[Central Cross-Island Highway]] through the [[Taroko Gorge]] in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of [[Project National Glory|night raids]]. During the [[Second Taiwan Strait Crisis]] in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw [[Nike-Hercules missile]] batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology-oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the [[Taiwan Miracle]], was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.<ref name="bbctimeline-coldwar">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1955_1972.stm |title=Taiwan Timeline – Cold war fortress |year=2002 |work=BBC News |access-date=2 July 2009}}</ref>{{sfnp|Makinen|Woodward|1989|ps=: "Yet, the Chinese Nationalist government attempted to isolate Taiwan from the mainland inflation by creating it as an independent currency area. And during the later stages of the civil war it was able to end the hyperinflation on Taiwan, something it was unable to do on the mainland despite two attempts."}} In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917286-3,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220041321/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917286-3,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 December 2009 |title=China: Chiang Kai-shek: Death of the Casualty |date=14 April 1975 |newspaper=Time |page=3 |access-date=16 December 2009}}</ref> Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the [[Four Asian Tigers]]. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched [[diplomatic recognition]] to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Until the 1970s the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding [[martial law]], for severely repressing any political opposition, and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sun |first=Yat-sen |author2=Julie Lee Wei |author3=Ramon Hawley Myers |author4=Donald G. Gillin |title=Prescriptions for saving China: selected writings of Sun Yat-sen|editor=Julie Lee Wei |editor2=Ramon Hawley Myers |editor3=Donald G. Gillin |publisher=Hoover Press |year=1994 |page=36 |isbn=978-0-8179-9281-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YA3TzmnYRpYC |quote=The party first applied Sun's concept of political tutelage by governing through martial law, not tolerating opposition parties, controlling the public media, and using the 1947 constitution drawn up on the China mainland to govern. Thus, much of the world in those years gave the government low scores for democracy and human rights but admitted it had accomplished an economic miracle.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chao |first=Linda |author2=Ramon Hawley Myers |title=Democracy's new leaders in the Republic of China on Taiwan |publisher=Hoover Press |year=1997 |page=3 |isbn=978-0-8179-3802-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIiAd4MABAIC |quote=Although this party [the KMT] had initiated a democratic breakthrough and guided the democratic transition, it had also upheld martial law for thirty-six years and severely repressed political dissent and any efforts to establish an opposition party. [...] How was it possible that this party, so hated by opposition politicians and long regarded by Western critics as a dictatorial, Leninist-type party, still remained in power?}}</ref>{{sfnp|Fung|2000|p=67|ps=: "Nanjing was not only undemocratic and repressive but also inefficient and corrupt. [...] Furthermore, like other authoritarian regimes, the GMD sought to control people's mind."}}{{sfnp|Fung|2000|p=85|ps=: "The response to national emergency, critics argued, was not merely military, it was, even more important, political, requiring the termination of one-party dictatorship and the development of democratic institutions."}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Copper|first=John Franklin |title=Consolidating Taiwan's democracy |publisher=University Press of America |year=2005|page=8|isbn=978-0-7618-2977-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=761bWuEtEfEC |quote=Also, the "Temporary Provisions" (of the Constitution) did not permit forming new political parties, and those that existed at this time did not seriously compete with the Nationalist Party. Thus, at the national level the KMT did not permit competitive democratic elections.}}</ref> From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the [[Kaohsiung Incident]] took place in [[Kaohsiung]] to celebrate [[Human Rights Day]]. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1972_1986.stm|title=Out with the old|year=2002|work=BBC News|access-date=30 October 2009}}</ref>
[[Chiang Ching-kuo]], Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the ROC president and chairman of the KMT, began [[History of Taiwan#Democratic reforms|reforms]] to the political system in the mid-1980s. He sought to move more authority to "[[bensheng ren]]" (residents of Taiwan before Japan's surrender in World War II and their descendants) instead of continuing to promote "[[waisheng ren]]" (residents who came to the island in the 1940s and 50s after Japan's surrender and their descendants) as his father had.<ref name="Kagan">Richard Kagan. ''Taiwan's Statesman: Lee Teng-hui and Democracy in Asia.'' Naval Institute Press, 2014. p. 91-93. {{ISBN|9781612517551}}</ref> In 1984, the younger Chiang selected [[Lee Teng-hui]], a Taiwan-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the KMT lifting martial law, moving toward democracy, and choosing the native Taiwanese Lee Teng-hui to lead the country, the opposition DPP groped for a message; it would go on to lose the first direct presidential election in 1996.<ref name="EckholmNYT2000">{{Cite news|last=Eckholm |first=Erik |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/22/world/why-a-victory-in-taiwan-wasn-t-enough-for-some.html |title=Why a Victory in Taiwan Wasn't Enough for Some|newspaper=The New York Times|date=22 March 2000 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
====Post-martial law era (1987–present)====
{{See also|Politics of the Republic of China}}
[[File:President Lee teng hui.png|thumb|upright|In 1988, [[Lee Teng-hui]] became the first president of the Republic of China born in Taiwan and was the first to be directly elected in 1996.]]
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him and became the first president born in Taiwan. Lee continued the democratic reforms to the government and replaced many "waisheng ren" in government positions with "bensheng ren". Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of [[Taiwanese localization movement|localization]] in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the [[Taiwan Provincial Government]] with most of its functions transferred to the [[Executive Yuan]]. Under Lee, the original members of the [[Legislative Yuan]] and [[National Assembly of the Republic of China|National Assembly]] (a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005),<ref>{{Cite thesis|url=http://ntur.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/246246/262968
|title=Influence of Constitutional Reform on Parliamentary System in Taiwan: From the Perspective of the Abolishment of the National Assembly|publisher=Graduate Institute of National Development, National Taiwan University, the Republic of China|date=29 November 2014|type=thesis}}</ref> elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of [[Taiwanese Hokkien]] in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.<ref name="ÁrokayGvozdanović2014">{{cite book|author1=Judit Árokay|author2=Jadranka Gvozdanović|author3=Darja Miyajima|title=Divided Languages?: Diglossia, Translation and the Rise of Modernity in Japan, China, and the Slavic World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p4K9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA73|year=2014|publisher=Springer Science|isbn=978-3-319-03521-5|page=73}}</ref>
Reforms continued in the 1990s. The [[Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China]] and the [[Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area]] defined the status of the ROC, making Taiwan its ''de facto'' territory. Lee Teng-hui was re-elected as the KMT candidate in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC, defeating DDP candidate Peng Ming-min.<ref>{{cite web |title=Central Election Commission:::Presidential Elections::: |url=https://web.cec.gov.tw/english/cms/pe |website=Central Election Commission |access-date=28 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/1986_1999.stm|title=Taiwan Timeline – Path to democracy|year=2002|work=BBC News|access-date=3 July 2009}}</ref> With democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was [[taboo]]. During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997, "To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Annotated_Republic_of_China_Laws/Additional_Articles_of_the_Constitution_of_the_Republic_of_China/1997 |title=Annotated Republic of China Laws/Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China/1997 |publisher=Wikibooks |date=22 April 2015 |access-date=15 September 2017}}</ref> the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite.
In 2000, [[Chen Shui-bian]] of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004, even after he backtracked on the need to declare Taiwan's independence.<ref name="EckholmNYT2000" /> Meanwhile, polarized politics emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the [[Pan-Blue Coalition]], led by the KMT, and the [[Pan-Green Coalition]], led by the DPP. The former prefers eventual [[Chinese unification]], while the latter prefers [[Taiwan independence movement|Taiwanese independence]].<ref>{{cite news|first1=James|last1=Pomfret|first2=Matthew|last2=Miller|first3=Ben|last3=Blanchard|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/taiwan-election-idUSKCN0UV02I|title=After vote, China tells Taiwan to abandon independence "hallucination"|work=Reuters|date=17 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190211044749/https://www.reuters.com/article/taiwan-election-idUSKCN0UV02I|archive-date=11 February 2019}}</ref>
In 2004, the Chen administration pushed for a referendum on [[2004 Taiwanese cross-Strait relations referendum|cross-Strait relations]]. In early 2006, Chen Shui-bian remarked: "The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4753974.stm BBC News: Taiwan scraps unification council], 27 February 2006</ref> On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a [[Resolution (law)|resolution]] asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-30-taiwan_N.htm|title=Taiwan party asserts separate identity from China |website=USA Today}}</ref>
However, Chen alienated moderate constituents who supported the status quo and those with cross-strait economic ties, as well as creating tension with the mainland and disagreements with the United States.<ref name="NYT2008">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/world/asia/12taiwan.html|title=Taiwan's Independence Movement Likely to Wane|last=Wong|first=Edward |date=12 March 2008|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=12 February 2016}}</ref> In 2008, [[2008 Taiwanese United Nations membership referendums|referendums]] were held on the same day as the presidential election asking whether Taiwan should join the UN under "Taiwan" (DPP's motion) or "Republic of China"/any other suitable name (KMT's motion). Both failed because only 35 percent of the electorate, below the required threshold of 50 percent, voted.<ref name="lam200803">{{cite journal | last = Lam | first = Willy | title = Ma Ying-jeou and the Future of Cross-Strait Relations | journal = China Brief | volume = 8 | issue = 7 | date = 28 March 2008 | url = http://jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2374064 | access-date = 4 April 2008 | format =– <sup>[https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3ALam+intitle%3AMa+Ying-jeou+and+the+Future+of+Cross-Strait+Relations&as_publication=China+Brief&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]</sup> |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080413105956/http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2374064 |archive-date = 13 April 2008 }}</ref> The Chen administration was also dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, and [[Chen Shui-bian corruption charges|corruption investigations]] involving the First Family as well as government officials, lowering the President's ratings to the 20s near the end of his second term.<ref name="economist20080323">{{cite news | title = The Nationalists are back in Taiwan | newspaper = The Economist | location = London | date = 23 March 2008 }}</ref><ref name="ft20080325">{{Cite news | title = Straitened times: Taiwan looks to China | newspaper = Financial Times | date= 25 March 2008 | url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07d43e18-fa9a-11dc-aa46-000077b07658.html}}</ref><ref name="NYT2008" />
In the [[2008 Republic of China legislative election|January 2008 legislative elections]], the KMT's majority in the Legislative Yuan increased. Its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to [[2008 Republic of China presidential election|win the presidency]] in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "[[Special non-state-to-state relations|mutual non-denial]]".<ref name="lam200803" /> Under Ma, Taiwan and China opened up direct flights and cargo shipments, with the latter country even making it possible for Taiwan to participate in the annual [[World Health Assembly]]. Threats from China faded from the public's mind, although U.S. analysts Richard Fisher and Richard Bush argued that military tensions with the PRC had not been reduced.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2009-08-20-voa17-68706212/409333.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140310030905/http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2009-08-20-voa17-68706212/409333.html |archive-date=10 March 2014 |title=Taiwan-China Economic Ties Boom, Military Tensions Remain {{!}} English |publisher=Voice of America |date=20 August 2009 |access-date=1 August 2010}}</ref>
[[File:2014 太陽花學運 DSC00465 (13573978414).jpg|thumb|[[Sunflower Student Movement|Student protest]] in Taipei against a controversial [[Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement|trade agreement with China]] in March 2014]]
In 2014, a group of university students successfully occupied the Legislative Yuan and prevented the ratification of the [[Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement]] in what became known as the [[Sunflower Student Movement]]. The movement gave rise to youth-based third parties such as the [[New Power Party]], and is viewed to have contributed to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) victories the [[2016 Taiwanese presidential election|2016 presidential]] and [[2016 Taiwanese legislative election|legislative elections]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ho |first1=Ming-sho |title=The Activist Legacy of Taiwan's Sunflower Movement |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/08/02/activist-legacy-of-taiwan-s-sunflower-movement-pub-76966 |website=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref> This marked the first time in Taiwanese history that the KMT lost its legislative majority.
In 2016, [[Tsai Ing-wen]] of the DPP became the president of Taiwan. In 2020, she called on the international community to defend the self-ruled island's democracy in the face of renewed threats from China and called on the latter to democratize and renounce the use of military force against Taiwan. [[Paramount leader|Chinese leader]] [[Xi Jinping]] had earlier expressed that Taiwan was part of China, who reserves the right to use force but will strive to achieve peaceful "reunification". Xi also offered to discuss unification with parties or individuals under the precondition of "one China", but both Tsai and the KMT rejected Xi's proposal.<ref name="TsaiDemocracy">{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-china/taiwan-president-calls-for-international-support-to-defend-democracy-idUSKCN1OZ058 |title=Taiwan President Calls For International Support To Defend Democracy |date=4 January 2019 |access-date=5 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="TsaiDemocratizePRC">{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-05/china-must-democratize-for-taiwan-progress-president-tsai-says |title=China Must Democratize for Taiwan Progress, President Tsai Says |date=5 January 2019 |access-date=6 January 2019 |quote=Tsai called on Beijing to become more democratic and renounce the use of military force if it wants to have any chance of winning over the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese public. ... Chinese President Xi Jinping offered on Wednesday to begin discussions on unification with any parties or individuals that accept Taiwan is part of "one China." Both Tsai and the China-friendly opposition Kuomintang rejected Xi's proposal, saying his "one country, two systems" framework lacks support in Taiwan.}}</ref>
In January 2020, Tsai was [[2020 Taiwanese presidential election|re-elected]] and in the simultaneous [[2020 Taiwanese legislative election|legislative election]] President Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a majority with 61 out of 113 seats. The Kuomintang (KMT) got 38 seats.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51077553|title=Taiwan election: Tsai Ing-wen wins second presidential term|work=BBC News|date=11 January 2020}}</ref>
In the 2020 [[Democracy Index]] published by the London-based [[Economist Intelligence Unit]], Taiwan was upgraded from a "flawed democracy" to a "full democracy", after rising from the 31st place to the 11th, more improvement than any other country. It was ranked below Canada but above Germany, Japan, and the United States.<ref name="indexreport2020">{{cite report |url=https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/democracy-index-2020.pdf|title=Democracy Index 2020|quote=The star-performer in this year’s Democracy Index, measured by the change in both its score and rank, is Taiwan, which was upgraded from a 'flawed democracy' to a 'full democracy', after rising 20 places in the global ranking from 31st place to 11th |work=The Economist Intelligence Unit |date=2021}}</ref>
==Geography==
{{Main|Geography of Taiwan}}
[[File:Taiwan NASA Terra MODIS 23791.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east, with gently sloping plains in the west. The [[Penghu Islands]] are west of the main island.]]
The area controlled by the ROC consists of [[List of islands of Taiwan|several islands]] with a combined area of {{convert|36193|km2}}.<ref name="taiwansnapshot"/><ref name="NDC2021">{{cite report |title=Economic Development R.O.C (Taiwan)|publisher=[[National Development Council (Taiwan)]] |url=https://ws.ndc.gov.tw/Download.ashx?u=LzAwMS9hZG1pbmlzdHJhdG9yLzEwL3JlbGZpbGUvNTYwNy83MzEvMDAxOTgyMy5wZGY%3D&n=RWNvbm9taWMgRGV2ZWxvcG1lbnQgUi5PLkMgKFRhaXdhbikoMjAxMykucGRm&icon=..pdf.|page=4 |access-date=6 November 2021}}</ref>{{efn|There are three contemporary geographic definitions of "Taiwan" (see [[Taiwanese archipelago]] and [[Regions of Taiwan]]), which may refer to: 1. Common name of the state officially named Republic of China, this contains all 166 islands administered by the ROC, collectively known as [[Taiwan Area]]; 2. Taiwan proper region (本島地區), the geographical unit encompass the island of Taiwan and its offshore islands as well as the Penghu islands, excluding the outlying island groups of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and the South China Sea islands; 3. The [[island of Taiwan]], this indicates only the main island in the geographical unit and the state.}} The main island, known historically as ''Formosa'', makes up 99 per cent of this area, measuring {{convert|35808|km2|sqmi|0}} and lying some {{convert|180|km|mi|0}} across the [[Taiwan Strait]] from the southeastern coast of mainland China. The [[East China Sea]] lies to its north, the [[Philippine Sea]] to its east, the [[Luzon Strait]] directly to its south and the [[South China Sea]] to its southwest. Smaller islands include the [[Penghu Islands|Penghu archipelago]] in the Taiwan Strait, the [[Kinmen]], [[Matsu Islands|Matsu]] and [[Wuqiu, Kinmen|Wuqiu]] islands near the Chinese coast, and some of the [[South China Sea]] islands.
The main island is a tilted [[fault block]], characterized by the contrast between the eastern two-thirds, consisting mostly of five rugged mountain ranges parallel to the east coast, and the flat to gently rolling plains of the western third, where the majority of Taiwan's population reside. There are several peaks over 3,500 m, the highest being [[Yu Shan]] at {{cvt|3952|m|ft}}, making Taiwan the world's [[List of islands by highest point|fourth-highest island]]. The tectonic boundary that formed these ranges is still active, and the island experiences many earthquakes, a few of them highly destructive. There are also many active [[submarine volcano]]es in the Taiwan Straits.
Taiwan contains four terrestrial ecoregions: [[Jian Nan subtropical evergreen forests]], South China Sea Islands, [[South Taiwan monsoon rain forests]], and [[Taiwan subtropical evergreen forests]].<ref name="DinersteinOlson2017">{{cite journal|last1=Dinerstein|first1=Eric|last2=Olson|first2=David|last3=Joshi|first3=Anup|last4=Vynne|first4=Carly|last5=Burgess|first5=Neil D.|last6=Wikramanayake|first6=Eric|last7=Hahn|first7=Nathan|last8=Palminteri|first8=Suzanne|last9=Hedao|first9=Prashant|last10=Noss|first10=Reed|last11=Hansen|first11=Matt|last12=Locke|first12=Harvey|last13=Ellis|first13=Erle C|last14=Jones|first14=Benjamin|last15=Barber|first15=Charles Victor|last16=Hayes|first16=Randy|last17=Kormos|first17=Cyril|last18=Martin|first18=Vance|last19=Crist|first19=Eileen|last20=Sechrest|first20=Wes|last21=Price|first21=Lori|last22=Baillie|first22=Jonathan E. M.|last23=Weeden|first23=Don|last24=Suckling|first24=Kierán|last25=Davis|first25=Crystal|last26=Sizer|first26=Nigel|last27=Moore|first27=Rebecca|last28=Thau|first28=David|last29=Birch|first29=Tanya|last30=Potapov|first30=Peter|last31=Turubanova|first31=Svetlana|last32=Tyukavina|first32=Alexandra|last33=de Souza|first33=Nadia|last34=Pintea|first34=Lilian|last35=Brito|first35=José C.|last36=Llewellyn|first36=Othman A.|last37=Miller|first37=Anthony G.|last38=Patzelt|first38=Annette|last39=Ghazanfar|first39=Shahina A.|last40=Timberlake|first40=Jonathan|last41=Klöser|first41=Heinz|last42=Shennan-Farpón|first42=Yara|last43=Kindt|first43=Roeland|last44=Lillesø|first44=Jens-Peter Barnekow|last45=van Breugel|first45=Paulo|last46=Graudal|first46=Lars|last47=Voge|first47=Maianna|last48=Al-Shammari|first48=Khalaf F.|last49=Saleem|first49=Muhammad|display-authors=1|title=An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm|journal=BioScience|volume=67|issue=6|year=2017|pages=534–545|issn=0006-3568|doi=10.1093/biosci/bix014|pmid=28608869|pmc=5451287|doi-access=free}}</ref> The eastern mountains are heavily forested and home to a diverse range of wildlife, while land use in the western and northern lowlands is intensive. The country had a 2019 [[Forest Landscape Integrity Index]] mean score of 6.38/10, ranking it 76th globally out of 172 countries.<ref name="FLII-Supplementary">{{cite journal|last1=Grantham|first1=H. S.|last2=Duncan|first2=A.|last3=Evans|first3=T. D.|last4=Jones|first4=K. R.|last5=Beyer|first5=H. L.|last6=Schuster|first6=R.|last7=Walston|first7=J.|last8=Ray|first8=J. C.|last9=Robinson|first9=J. G.|last10=Callow|first10=M.|last11=Clements|first11=T.|last12=Costa|first12=H. M.|last13=DeGemmis|first13=A.|last14=Elsen|first14=P. R.|last15=Ervin|first15=J.|last16=Franco|first16=P.|last17=Goldman|first17=E.|last18=Goetz|first18=S.|last19=Hansen|first19=A.|last20=Hofsvang|first20=E.|last21=Jantz|first21=P.|last22=Jupiter|first22=S.|last23=Kang|first23=A.|last24=Langhammer|first24=P.|last25=Laurance|first25=W. F.|last26=Lieberman|first26=S.|last27=Linkie|first27=M.|last28=Malhi|first28=Y.|last29=Maxwell|first29=S.|last30=Mendez|first30=M.|last31=Mittermeier|first31=R.|last32=Murray|first32=N. J.|last33=Possingham|first33=H.|last34=Radachowsky|first34=J.|last35=Saatchi|first35=S.|last36=Samper|first36=C.|last37=Silverman|first37=J.|last38=Shapiro|first38=A.|last39=Strassburg|first39=B.|last40=Stevens|first40=T.|last41=Stokes|first41=E.|last42=Taylor|first42=R.|last43=Tear|first43=T.|last44=Tizard|first44=R.|last45=Venter|first45=O.|last46=Visconti|first46=P.|last47=Wang|first47=S.|last48=Watson|first48=J. E. M.|display-authors=1|title=Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity – Supplementary Material|journal=Nature Communications|volume=11|issue=1|year=2020|page=5978|issn=2041-1723|doi=10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3|pmid=33293507|pmc=7723057|doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Climate===
{{see also| Climate change in Taiwan}}
[[File:Koppen-Geiger Map TWN present.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|Köppen climate classification of Taiwan]]
Taiwan lies on the [[Tropic of Cancer]], and its general [[climate]] is marine [[tropical climate|tropical]].<ref name="cia-factbook">{{cite web |title=Taiwan |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/taiwan/ |work=The World Factbook |publisher=United States Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=6 May 2019}}</ref> The northern and central regions are subtropical, whereas the south is tropical and the mountainous regions are temperate.{{sfnp|Exec. Yuan|2014|p=44}} The average rainfall is {{convert|2600|mm|abbr=off}} per year for the island proper; the [[East Asian rainy season|rainy season]] is concurrent with the onset of the summer [[East Asian Monsoon]] in May and June.{{sfnp|Exec. Yuan|2014|p=45}} The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. [[Typhoon]]s are most common in July, August and September.{{sfnp|Exec. Yuan|2014|p=45}} During the winter (November to March), the northeast experiences steady rain, while the central and southern parts of the island are mostly sunny.
Due to [[Climate change in Taiwan|climate change]], the average temperature in Taiwan has risen {{Convert|1.4|C-change|abbr=}} in the last 100 years, which is twice of the worldwide temperature rise.<ref>{{cite web|title=Climate of Taiwan|url=https://traveltips.usatoday.com/climate-taiwan-62832.html|access-date=18 September 2020|website=Travel Tips – USA Today|language=en}}</ref> The goal of the Taiwanese government is to cut [[carbon emissions]] by 20 per cent in 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and by 50 per cent in 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Carbon emissions increased by 0.92 per cent between 2005 and 2016.<ref>{{cite web|title=Is Taiwan Doing Enough to Address Climate Change in The Hottest Summer Ever?｜Politics & Society｜2020-08-19｜web only|url=https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=2780|access-date=18 September 2020|website=CommonWealth Magazine}}</ref>
===Geology===
{{Main|Geology of Taiwan}}
[[File:DabajianMountain.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dabajian Mountain]]]]
The island of Taiwan lies in a complex [[tectonics|tectonic]] area between the [[Yangtze Plate]] to the west and north, the [[Okinawa Plate]] on the north-east, and the [[Philippine Mobile Belt]] on the east and south. The upper part of the crust on the island is primarily made up of a series of [[terrane]]s, mostly old [[island arc]]s which have been forced together by the collision of the forerunners of the [[Eurasian Plate]] and the [[Philippine Sea Plate]]. These have been further uplifted as a result of the detachment of a portion of the Eurasian Plate as it was [[subduction|subducted]] beneath remnants of the Philippine Sea Plate, a process which left the crust under Taiwan more buoyant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geo.arizona.edu/~anderson/taiwan/tai_index.html |title=Geology of Taiwan |publisher=University of Arizona |access-date=1 August 2010}}</ref>
The east and south of Taiwan are a complex system of belts formed by, and part of the zone of, active collision between the North Luzon Trough portion of the [[Luzon Volcanic Arc]] and South China, where accreted portions of the Luzon Arc and Luzon forearc form the [[Haian Range|eastern Coastal Range]] and parallel inland [[Huatung Valley|Longitudinal Valley]] of Taiwan, respectively.<ref>Clift, Schouten and Draut (2003) in ''Intra-Oceanic Subduction Systems: Tectonic and Magmatic Processes'', {{ISBN|1-86239-147-5}} p84–86</ref>
The major seismic faults in Taiwan correspond to the various suture zones between the various terranes. These have produced major quakes throughout the history of the island. On 21 September 1999, a 7.3 quake known as the "[[1999 Jiji (Chichi) earthquake|921 earthquake]]" killed more than 2,400 people. The [[seismic hazard map]] for Taiwan by the [[USGS]] shows 9/10 of the island at the highest rating (most hazardous).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/eastasia/asiafin.gif |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000303055258/http://seismo.ethz.ch/gshap/eastasia/asiafin.gif |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 March 2000 |title=USGS seismic hazard map of Eastern Asia |publisher=Seismo.ethz.ch |access-date=30 May 2011 }}</ref>
=={{anchor|status}}Political and legal status==
{{Main|Political status of Taiwan}}
{{See also|List of states with limited recognition|Foreign relations of China#International territorial disputes}}
The political and legal statuses of Taiwan are contentious issues. The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that Taiwan is Chinese territory and that itself has replaced the ROC government in 1949, becoming the sole legal government of China.<ref name="PRCNorway">{{cite web |url=https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/ceno/eng/ztxw/twwt/t110655.htm |title=White Paper--The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=21 February 2000 |website=Embassy of the PRC in the Kingdom of Norway |publisher=The Taiwan Affairs Office and The Information Office of the State Council |access-date=27 November 2021 |quote=As we have already said, Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and, after replacing the government of the Republic of China in 1949, the government of the PRC has become the sole legal government of China, enjoying and exercising sovereignty over the whole of China, including Taiwan.}}</ref> The ROC has its [[New Taiwan dollar|own currency]], [[Taiwan passport|widely accepted passport]], [[Postage stamps and postal history of Taiwan|postage stamps]], internet [[Top-level domain|TLD]], armed forces and constitution with an independently elected president.<ref name="tfp09">{{cite web |title=Taiwan flashpoint: Introduction – Present status |website=BBC News |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |date=2009 |access-date=6 December 2020 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/present_status.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164959/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/present_status.stm |archive-date=5 December 2020 |quote=But Taiwan's leaders say it is clearly much more than a province, arguing that it is a sovereign state. It has its own constitution, democratically-elected leaders, and 400,000 troops in its armed forces. }}</ref> It has not formally renounced its claim to the mainland, but ROC government publications have increasingly downplayed this historical claim.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chang |first=Bi-yu |date=2015 |title=Place, Identity, and National Imagination in Post-war Taiwan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hgaUBwAAQBAJ&q=9781317658122&pg=PA58 |location=Oxon, UK, and New York City |publisher=Routledge |pages=35–40, 46–60 |isbn=978-1-317-65812-2 }}</ref>
Though it was a [[Member states of the United Nations#Original members|founding member of United Nations]], the ROC now has neither official membership nor observer status in the organization.
===Relations with the PRC===
{{See also|Cross-Strait relations}}
[[File:2015 Ma–Xi Meeting 08.jpg|thumb|[[2015 Ma–Xi meeting]]]]
The political environment is complicated by the potential for military conflict<ref name="mol21">{{cite news |title=Proof China has been practising for years for a war that would spark mass global conflict |first=Shannon |last=Molloy |date=2021-10-13 |work=news.com.au |publisher=Nationwide News |url=https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/proof-china-has-been-practising-for-years-for-a-war-that-would-spark-mass-global-conflict/news-story/efe55679a42171268224ba89b084e386 |access-date=2021-10-13 }}</ref><ref name="mar21">{{cite news |title=U.S. Lawmakers' Visit to Taiwan Tests Detente With China |first=Peter |last=Martin |date=2021-11-10 |work=Bloomberg |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-09/u-s-lawmakers-visit-to-taiwan-inflames-tensions-with-china |url-access=limited |access-date=2021-11-13 }}</ref><ref name="yn21">{{cite news |title='Inconceivable': Peter Dutton warns of major China move |author=Yahoo News Staff |date=2021-11-13 |work=Yahoo News |publisher=Yahoo |url=https://au.news.yahoo.com/inconceivable-australia-must-prepare-major-china-move-002430696.html |access-date=2021-11-13 }}</ref><ref name="cha21">{{cite news |title=China's media mouthpiece issues thinly-veiled warning to Australia amid tension over Taiwan |first=Alex |last=Chapman |date=2021-11-14 |work=7News |url=https://7news.com.au/travel/china/chinas-media-mouthpiece-issues-thinly-veiled-warning-to-australia-amid-tension-over-taiwan-c-4551154 |access-date=2021-11-14 |quote=Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend itself if China attacks. }}</ref> should events outlined in the PRC's [[anti-secession law]] were to occur, such as Taiwan declaring ''[[de jure]]'' independence. While it aims for peaceful reunification, the PRC does not rule out the use of force.<ref name="PRCNorway"/><ref name="scmp2014sep27">{{cite news|last1=Chung|first1=Lawrence|title='One country, two systems' right formula for Taiwan, Xi Jinping reiterates|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1601307/one-country-two-systems-right-formula-taiwan-xi-jinping-reiterates?page=all|access-date=14 April 2015|work=South China Morning Post|date=27 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="bbc21">{{cite news |title=China-Taiwan tensions: We will not bow to Beijing pressure, says leader |date=2021-10-10 |work= BBC News |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58860365 |access-date=2021-10-10 }}</ref> There is a substantial military presence on the Fujian coast as well as PRC sorties into Taiwan's [[ADIZ]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/liancheng.htm|title=Liancheng / Lianfeng Airbase – Chinese Military Forces|publisher=Federation of American Scientists|access-date=7 June 2009|quote=In March 2000 it was reported that the PLA Air Force was deploying new air-defense missiles [possibly batteries of Russian-made S-300 missiles] opposite Taiwan at the coastal cities of Xiamen and Shantou, and at Longtian, near Fuzhou.}}</ref><ref name=2004NatDefRpt>{{cite web|year=2004 |title=2004 National Defense Report |work=ROC Ministry of National Defense |url=https://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/article/attachments/taiwan-2004-national-defense-report.pdf |access-date=27 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="srf21">{{cite news |title=Luftraumverletzungen in Taiwan: Es geht um Einschüchterung |trans-title=Airspace intrusion in Taiwan: It's about intimidation |language=DE-ch |date=2021-10-05 |work=SRF 4 News |publisher=SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen |url=https://www.srf.ch/news/international/militaerjets-aus-china-luftraumverletzungen-in-taiwan-es-geht-um-einschuechterung |access-date=2021-10-10 }}</ref>
For almost 60 years, there were no direct transportation links, including direct flights, between Taiwan and the PRC. This was a problem for many Taiwanese businesses that had opened factories or branches in mainland China. The former DPP administration feared that such links would lead to tighter economic and political integration with mainland China.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} In the 2006 Lunar New Year Speech, President Chen Shui-bian called for managed opening of links. Direct weekend charter flights between Taiwan and mainland China began in July 2008 under the KMT government, and the first direct daily charter flights took off in December 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5346905.ece|title=Direct flights between China and Taiwan mark new era of improved relations|last=Yu|first=Sophie|author2=Jane Macartney |date=16 December 2008|newspaper=The Times|access-date=4 June 2009 | location=London}}</ref>
On 29 April 2005, Kuomintang [[Chairman of the Kuomintang|Chairman]] [[Lien Chan]] travelled to Beijing and [[2005 Pan–Blue visits to mainland China|met]] with Chinese Communist Party [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party|General Secretary]] [[Hu Jintao]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/04/30/2003252532|title=Lien, Hu share 'vision' for peace|last=Hong|first=Caroline|date=30 April 2005|work=Taipei Times|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> the first meeting between the leaders of the two parties since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. On 11 February 2014, [[Mainland Affairs Council]] head [[Wang Yu-chi]] travelled to [[Nanjing]] and met with [[Taiwan Affairs Office]] head [[Zhang Zhijun]], the [[2014 Wang–Zhang meetings|first meeting between high-ranking officials]] from either side.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/02/12/2003583307|title=MAC Minister Wang in historic meeting|last=Wang|first=Chris|date=12 February 2014|work=Taipei Times|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> Zhang paid a reciprocal visit to Taiwan and met Wang on 25 June 2014, making Zhang the first minister-level PRC official to ever visit Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/25/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/first-minister-level-chinese-official-heads-to-taipei-for-talks/|title=First minister-level Chinese official heads to Taipei for talks|date=25 June 2014|newspaper=Japan Times|issn=0447-5763|access-date=4 June 2016}}</ref> On 7 November 2015, Ma Ying-jeou (in his capacity as ''[[Leader of Taiwan]]'') and Xi Jinping (in his capacity as leader of Mainland China<ref>{{cite news|last1=Huang|first1=Cary|title=Xi's a mister, so is Ma: China and Taiwan have an unusual solution for an old problem|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1875810/xis-mister-so-ma-china-and-taiwan-have-unusual-solution|access-date=12 November 2015|work=South China Morning Post|date=5 November 2015}}</ref>) travelled to Singapore and [[2015 Ma–Xi meeting|met up]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2015/11/07/450352/Cross-strait-leaders.htm|title=Cross-strait leaders meet after 66 years of separation|last=Chiao|first=Yuan-Ming|date=7 November 2015|work=China Post|access-date=3 June 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151110044804/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2015/11/07/450352/Cross-strait-leaders.htm|archive-date=10 November 2015}}</ref> marking the highest-level exchange between the two sides since 1945.<ref name=cnaupdate>{{cite news|last1=Lee|first1=Shu-hua|last2=Chang|first2=S.C|title=President Ma to meet China's Xi in Singapore Saturday (update)|url=http://focustaiwan.tw/news/afav/201511040001.aspx|access-date=4 November 2015|agency=Central News Agency}}</ref>
The PRC supports a version of the [[One-China policy]], which states that Taiwan and mainland China are both part of China, and that the PRC is the only legitimate [[Government of China (disambiguation)|government of China]].<ref name="woo21" /> It seeks to prevent or reduce any formal recognition of the ROC as an independent sovereign state,<ref name="hor21">{{cite news |title=The World Is Fed Up With China's Belligerence |first=Chris |last=Horton |date=2021-11-09 |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/11/china-taiwan-democracy/620647/ |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109114720/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/11/china-taiwan-democracy/620647/ |archive-date=2021-11-09 |access-date=2021-11-09 |quote=Where the word Beijing once conjured the image of a confident, rising power, today it represents a frowning, finger-pointing, never-erring crank, its constant stream of vitriol diminishing the effectiveness of Chinese anger. One of the implications of this hyperinflation of hurt feelings has been the effective removal of the deterrent against democracies' improving their unofficial relations with Taiwan. After all, if most moves are likely to anger Beijing, why hold back from any of them? }}</ref> meaning that Taiwan participates in many international forums as a non-state member under names such as "Chinese Taipei". While the PRC could employ [[Anti-Secession Law|non-peaceful means]] in the event of Taiwan secession or if peaceful unification is no longer possible, it has also outlined its principle of "peaceful reunification, and one country, two systems" for Taiwan, such as the preservation of its capitalist system for at least some time and no stationing of Central Government troops and administrative personnel.<ref name="PRCNorway" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1285915.stm|title=Country profile: Taiwan|date=11 September 2009|work=BBC News|access-date=17 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="TsaiDemocracy"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.fapa.org/chinawp/chinathreatwp223.html|title=China's Threats, Editorial|date=23 February 2000|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=31 October 2011|archive-date=7 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107124808/http://www.fapa.org/chinawp/chinathreatwp223.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, President Ma Ying-jeou stated that there would be neither unification nor declaration of independence during his presidency.<ref name="MasClaimtoMainland" /> President Tsai Ing-wen, who has supported the [[2019–20 Hong Kong protests]], has pledged that as long as she is Taiwan's president, she will never accept "[[one country, two systems]]".<ref>"[http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201906100017.aspx Tsai, Lai voice support for Hong Kong extradition bill protesters]". ''Focus Taiwan''. The Central News Agency. 10 June 2019.</ref><ref name="an21">{{cite news |agency=Reuters |title=President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will not be forced to bow to China |date=2021-10-10 |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-10/taiwan-president-tsai-ing-wen-not-bowing-to-china/100527978 |access-date=2021-10-10 }}</ref>
===Foreign relations===
{{Main|Foreign relations of Taiwan}}
[[File:RC (Taiwan).png|thumb|upright=1.7|Countries maintaining relations with the ROC{{legend|#008000|diplomatic relations and embassy in [[Taipei]]}}
{{legend|#0080ff|unofficial relations (see text)}}|alt=A map of the world showing countries which have relations with the Republic of China. Only a few small countries maintain diplomatic relations with the government of Taiwan, mainly in Central America, South America and Africa.]]
Before 1928, the [[foreign policy]] of Republican China was complicated by a lack of internal unity—competing centres of power all claimed legitimacy. This situation changed after the defeat of the [[Beiyang Government|Peiyang Government]] by the Kuomintang (KMT), which led to widespread diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/countries/china |title=Countries – China|publisher=US Department of State, Office of the Historian|access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
After the KMT's retreat to Taiwan, most countries, notably the countries in the [[Western Bloc]], continued to maintain relations with the ROC, but recognition gradually eroded and many countries switched recognition to the People's Republic of China in the 1970s. On October 25, 1971, UN Resolution 2758 was adopted by 76 votes to 35 with 17 abstensions, recognizing the PRC, founded in 1949 on the mainland, as China's sole representative in the United Nations; countries in support included France, India, the UK, and the USSR, and countries in opposition included Japan and the United States.<ref>Eyal Propper. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120325191248/http://israelcfr.com/documents/issue5_china.pdf "How China Views its National Security,"] [[Israel Council on Foreign Relations|The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs]], May 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite document|publisher=United Nations Digital Library|url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/735611?ln=en|page=41| title=General Assembly, 26th session : 1976th plenary meeting, Monday, 25 October 1971, New York (A/PV.1976)|year = 1974}}</ref>
[[File:Taiwanese Embassy in Mbabane.JPG|thumb|[[Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Kingdom of Eswatini|ROC embassy]] in [[Eswatini]]]]
The PRC refuses to have diplomatic relations with any nation that has diplomatic relations with the ROC, and requires all nations with which it has diplomatic relations to make a statement recognizing its claims to Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henckaerts|first=Jean-Marie|title=The international status of Taiwan in the new world order|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=1996|pages=96–97|isbn=978-90-411-0929-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_9kuVIayxDoC&pg=PA96}}</ref> As a result, only {{Numrec|ROC||UN member states}} and the [[Holy See]] maintain official diplomatic relations with the Republic of China.<ref name="woo21" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="wule21">{{cite news |title=Taiwan welcomes first official European Parliament delegation |first1=Sarah |last1=Wu |first2=Yimou |last2=Lee |editor-first=Christian |editor-last=Schmollinger |date=2021-11-03 |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/taiwan-welcomes-first-official-european-parliament-delegation-2021-11-03/ |work=Reuters |access-date=2021-11-03 }}</ref> The ROC maintains unofficial relations with most countries via ''de facto'' [[embassy|embassies]] and [[consul (representative)|consulates]] called [[Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office]]s (TECRO), with branch offices called "Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices" (TECO). Both TECRO and TECO are "unofficial commercial entities" of the ROC in charge of maintaining [[diplomacy|diplomatic relations]], providing consular services (i.e. visa applications), and serving the national interests of the ROC in other countries.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vang|first=Pobzeb |title=Five Principles of Chinese Foreign Policies|publisher=AuthorHouse|year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4343-6971-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvXlFsxmJiMC|page=46}}</ref>
From 1954 to 1979, the United States was a partner with Taiwan in a mutual defense treaty. The United States remains one of the [[Republic of China-United States relations|main supporters]] of Taiwan and, through the [[Taiwan Relations Act]] passed in 1979, has continued selling arms and providing military training to the [[Republic of China Armed Forces|Armed Forces]].<ref name="TRA-review">{{cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/research/asiaandthepacific/bg1272.cfm|title=The Taiwan Relations Act After 20 Years: Keys to Past and Future Success|first=Stephen J.|last=Yates|author-link=Stephen J. Yates|date=16 April 1999|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|access-date=19 July 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722095740/http://www.heritage.org/research/asiaandthepacific/bg1272.cfm|archive-date=22 July 2009}}</ref> This situation continues to be an issue for the People's Republic of China, which considers US involvement disruptive to the stability of the region. In January 2010, the US announced its intention to sell $6.4 billion worth of military hardware to Taiwan. As a consequence, the PRC warned that its co-operation with the US on international and regional issues could suffer and that the companies involved, namely [[Raytheon]], [[Lockheed Martin]], [[Boeing]], and [[United Technologies]], could face Chinese sanctions.<ref name="SanctionsAFP">{{cite news|title=China: US spat over Taiwan could hit co-operation |date=2 February 2010 |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDzKLVZ7X2dz8yrsshklcJZh38Cg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206214100/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDzKLVZ7X2dz8yrsshklcJZh38Cg |archive-date=6 February 2010 |access-date=17 July 2014}}</ref>
The official position of the United States is that the PRC is expected to "use no force or threat[en] to use force against Taiwan" and the ROC is to "exercise prudence in managing all aspects of [[Cross-Strait relations]]." Both are to refrain from performing actions or espousing statements "that would unilaterally alter Taiwan's status".<ref name="UsPolicyToTaiwan">{{cite press release |publisher=[[United States Department of State]] |date=21 April 2004|title=Overview of US Policy Towards Taiwan |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2004/31649.htm |access-date=17 July 2014 |last=Kelly |first=James A.}}</ref> On 16 December 2015, the [[Presidency of Barack Obama|Obama administration]] announced a deal to sell $1.83 billion worth of arms to the armed forces of the ROC.<ref>{{cite news|title=US to sell arms to Taiwan despite Chinese opposition|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35115507?|work=[[BBC News]]|date=16 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Obama to push ahead on Taiwan frigate sales despite Chinese anger|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/14/obama-to-push-ahead-on-taiwan-frigate-sales-despite-chinese-anger.html|publisher=[[CNBC]]|agency=[[Reuters]]|date=14 December 2015}}</ref> The [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China|foreign ministry of the PRC]] had expressed its disapproval for the sales and issued the US a "stern warning", saying it would hurt [[China–United States relations|PRC–US relations]].<ref>{{cite news|title=China warns against first major US-Taiwan arms sale in four years|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/16/china-warns-against-us-taiwan-arms-sale-defence|work=[[The Guardian]]|agency=[[Reuters]]|date=16 December 2015}}</ref> In response to US support for Taiwan, the PRC defense minister [[Wei Fenghe]] said in 2019 that "If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese military has no choice but to fight at all costs".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/02/china-says-war-with-us-would-be-a-disaster-as-tensions-mount|title=China says war with US would be a disaster as tensions mount|date=2 June 2019|access-date=2 June 2019|website=The Guardian}}</ref>
===Participation in international events and organizations===
{{See also|Foreign relations of Taiwan#Relation with International organizations|Chinese Taipei}}
The ROC was a founding member of the United Nations, and held the [[China and the United Nations|seat of China]] on the [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]] and other UN bodies until 1971, when it was expelled by Resolution 2758 and replaced in all UN organs with the PRC. Each year since 1992, the ROC has petitioned the UN for entry, but its applications have not made it past committee stage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taiwandc.org/un-2001.htm |title=Taiwan and the United Nations |publisher=New Taiwan |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
[[File:Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg|thumb|The flag used by Taiwan at the Olympic Games, where it competes as "[[Chinese Taipei]]" (中華台北)|alt=A white symbol in shape of a five petal flower ringed by a blue and a red line. In its centre stands a circular symbol depicting a white sun on a blue background. The five Olympic circles (blue, yellow, black, green and red) stand below it.]]
Due to its limited international recognition, the Republic of China has been a member of the [[Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization]] (UNPO) since the foundation of the organization in 1991, represented by a government-funded organization, the [[Taiwan Foundation for Democracy]] (TFD), under the name "Taiwan".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unpo.org/content/view/7908/146/ |title=Taiwan |publisher=UNPO |access-date=7 May 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tfd.org.tw/english/about.php|title=About TFD|publisher=TFD}}</ref>
Also due to its One China policy, the PRC only participates in international organizations where the ROC does not participate as a sovereign country. Most [[Member states of the United Nations|member states]], including the United States, do not wish to discuss the issue of the ROC's political status for fear of souring diplomatic ties with the PRC.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tkacik |first=John |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/05/13/2003443455 |title=John Tkacik on Taiwan: Taiwan's 'undetermined' status|newspaper=Taipei Times |date=13 May 2009 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> However, both the US and Japan publicly support the ROC's bid for membership in the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Su |first=Joy |title=WHO application: a question of health or politics? |date=19 May 2004 |newspaper=Taipei Times |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/05/19/2003156094}}</ref> However, though the ROC sought to participate in the WHO since 1997,<ref>{{cite news|title=Minister Chiu leads our WHA delegation to actively hold bilateral talks with delegations from other nations. This event has been the most successful medical-related diplomatic record over the past years.|url=http://www.mohw.gov.tw/EN/CommonPages/DocPrint.aspx?doc_no=45250|access-date=27 January 2015|publisher=Ministry of Health and Welfare|date=18 June 2014|location=Republic of China|archive-date=10 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210005025/http://www.mohw.gov.tw/EN/CommonPages/DocPrint.aspx?doc_no=45250|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=ROC urges world public to support WHO bid|url=http://taiwaninfo.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=19343&CtNode=103&htx_TRCategory=&mp=4|access-date=27 January 2015|work=Taiwan Info|date=3 May 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210015656/http://taiwaninfo.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=19343&CtNode=103&htx_TRCategory=&mp=4|archive-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> their efforts were rejected until 2009, when they participated under the name "Chinese Taipei" after reaching an agreement with Beijing.<ref name="WHO2009"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xitem=103148&ctnode=427&mp=9|title=Taiwan delegation to participate in WHA|newspaper=Taiwan Today|date=14 May 2010|access-date=2 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119091612/http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xitem=103148&ctnode=427&mp=9|archive-date=19 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2017, Taiwan again began to be excluded from the WHO even in an observer capacity.<ref>{{cite web|title=WHO Bows to China Pressure, Contravenes Human Rights in Refusing Taiwan Media|url=https://international.thenewslens.com/article/95982|website=international.thenewslens.com|access-date=31 March 2020|date=18 May 2018}}</ref> This exclusion caused a number of scandals during the [[COVID-19]] outbreak.<ref>{{cite web |last=Davidson|first=Helen|date=30 March 2020|title=Senior WHO adviser appears to dodge question on Taiwan's Covid-19 response|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adviser-appears-to-dodge-question-on-taiwans-covid-19-response |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Blanchard |first1=Ben |title=Parties unite over Taiwan's exclusion from WHO anti-virus planning |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-taiwan/parties-unite-over-taiwans-exclusion-from-who-anti-virus-planning-idUSKBN1ZN0QG |work=Reuters |access-date=31 March 2020|date=24 January 2020 }}</ref>
The [[Republic of China at the Olympics#Nagoya Resolution|Nagoya Resolution]] in 1979 between Taiwan (ROC), China (PRC), and the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) provided a compromise for the ROC to use the name "Chinese Taipei" in international events where the PRC is also a party, such as the [[Olympic Games]].<ref name="Brownell2007">http://hnn.us/article/51398#sthash.04ZCBpL4.dpuf; George Mason University History News Network: Susan Brownell, "Could China stop Taiwan from coming to the Olympic Games?"; original source: Minutes of the Executive Board meeting, Nagoya, Japan, 23–25 October 1979, p. 103; viewed August 26, 2014.</ref><ref name="Lin">{{cite news |title=How 'Chinese Taipei' came about |author=Catherine K. Lin |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/08/05/2003419446 |newspaper=Taipei Times |date=5 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="chinese-taipei">{{cite news |url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan%20relations/2008/07/25/167036/Taiwan-insists.htm |title=Taiwan insists on 'Chinese Taipei' |newspaper=China Post |date=25 July 2008 |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-date=29 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629085958/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan%20relations/2008/07/25/167036/Taiwan-insists.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under the IOC charter, [[Flag of the Republic of China|ROC flags]] cannot be flown at any official Olympic venue or gathering; this caused some concern in 2002 when residents of a downtown condominium in [[Salt Lake City]] hung two flags from Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Taiwan flags in Salt Lake ruffle a few feelings |date=10 February 2002 |newspaper=The Deseret News |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/894748/Taiwan-flags-in-SL-ruffle-a-few-feelings.html}}</ref> The ROC also participates in the [[Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation]] forum (since 1991) and the [[World Trade Organization]] (since 2002) under the name "Chinese Taipei". It was a founding member of the [[Asian Development Bank]], but since China's ascension in 1986 has participated under the name "Taipei,China".<!-- The lack of space after comma appears to be intentional. Do not modify. --> The ROC is able to participate as "China" in organizations in which the PRC does not participate, such as the [[World Organization of the Scout Movement]]. A [[2018 Taiwanese referendum|referendum question in 2018]] asked if Taiwan's athletes should compete under "Taiwan" in the [[2020 Summer Olympics]] but did not pass; the New York Times attributed the failure to a campaign cautioning that a name change might lead to Taiwan being banned "under Chinese pressure".<ref name="HortonNYT2018">{{Cite news|last=Horton|first=Chris|date=26 November 2018|title=Taiwan Asked Voters 10 Questions. It Got Some Unexpected Answers. (Published 2018)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/world/asia/taiwan-election.html|access-date=17 February 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
===Domestic opinion===
{{See also|Taiwan independence|Chinese Unification}}
Broadly speaking, domestic public opinion has preferred maintaining the status quo, though pro-independence sentiment has steadily risen since 1994. In June 2021, an annual poll run by the National Chengchi University found that 28.2 percent of respondents supported the status quo and postponing a decision, 27.5 percent supported maintaining the status quo indefinitely, 25.8 percent supported the status quo with a move toward independence, 5.9 percent supported the status quo with a move toward unification, 5.7 percent gave no response, 5.6 percent supported independence as soon as possible, and 1.5 percent supported unification as soon as possible.<ref name="chengchiIndepUnif">{{cite web |title=Taiwan Independence vs. Unification with the Mainland |url=https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7801&id=6963 |publisher=Election Study Center, [[National Chengchi University]] |access-date=27 October 2021}}</ref>
The KMT, the largest Pan-Blue party, supports the status quo for the indefinite future with a stated ultimate goal of unification. However, it does not support unification in the short term with the PRC as such a prospect would be unacceptable to most of its members and the public.<ref name="ma-three-noes" /> Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the KMT and former president of the ROC, has set out democracy, economic development to a level near that of Taiwan, and equitable wealth distribution as the conditions that the PRC must fulfill for reunification to occur.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national%20news/2008/05/16/156644/Unification-with.htm|title=Unification with China unlikely 'in our lifetimes': president-elect|last=Enav|first=Peter |date=16 May 2008|newspaper=China Post|access-date=13 June 2009|quote='It is very difficult for us to see any unification talks even in our lifetimes,' Ma said. 'Taiwanese people would like to have economic interactions with the mainland, but obviously they don't believe their political system is suitable for Taiwan.'}}</ref>
The Democratic Progressive Party, the largest Pan-Green party, officially seeks independence, but in practice also supports the status quo because neither independence nor re-unification seems likely in the short or even medium term.<ref>{{cite news |work=BBC News |title=Taiwan Flashpoint: Independence debate |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/independence_debate.stm |year=2009 |quote=Since neither outcome looks likely in the short or even medium term, it is perhaps not surprising that opinion polls suggest most Taiwanese people want things to stay as they are, with the island's ambiguous status unresolved.}}</ref>
On 2 September 2008, Mexican newspaper ''[[El Sol de Mexico|El Sol de México]]'' asked President Ma of the Kuomintang about his views on the subject of "[[two Chinas]]" and if there was a solution for the sovereignty issues between the two. The president replied that the relations are neither between two Chinas nor two states. It is a special relationship. Further, he stated that the sovereignty issues between the two cannot be resolved at present, but he quoted the "[[1992 Consensus]]", currently {{when||date=November 2019|reason=When?}} accepted by both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, as a temporary measure until a solution becomes available.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.oem.com.mx/oem/notas/n836891.htm|title=Impulsa Taiwan la reconciliación|date=2 September 2008|newspaper=El Sol de México|language=es|access-date=9 June 2009|quote=Esencialmente, no definiríamos la relación a través del estrecho de Taiwan como una relación de dos países o dos Chinas, porque nuestra Constitución no lo permite. Nosotros definiríamos está relación como una relación muy especial, ya que la Constitución nuestra, igual que la Constitución de China continental, no permite la existencia de otro país dentro del territorio.}}</ref>
On 27 September 2017, Taiwanese premier [[William Lai]] of the Democratic Progressive Party said that he was a "political worker who advocates Taiwan independence", but that as Taiwan was already an independent country called the Republic of China,<ref name="cha21" /><ref name="bbc21" /><ref name="srf21" /><ref name="gra21">{{cite news |title=For China's Xi Jinping, attacking Taiwan is about identity – that's what makes it so dangerous |first=Stan |last=Grant |author-link=Stan Grant (journalist) |date=2021-10-10 |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-10/china-xi-jinping-attacking-taiwan-about-identity-so-dangerous/100524868 |access-date=2021-10-10 }}</ref><ref name="dpa21-10">{{cite news |title=China: Manöver sollen Druck auf Taiwan und USA verstärken |trans-title=China: Maneuvers intended to increase pressure on Taiwan and the USA |author=dpa |author-link=Deutsche Presse-Agentur |date=2021-10-13 |language=de |work=Süddeutsche Zeitung |location=München |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/konflikte-china-manoever-sollen-druck-auf-taiwan-und-usa-verstaerken-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-211013-99-578083 |access-date=2021-10-17 |quote=Ohnehin versteht sich Taiwan längst selbst als unabhängig. |trans-quote=In any case, Taiwan has long seen itself as independent. }}</ref> it had no need to declare independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.todayonline.com/chinaindia/china/taiwanese-premiers-independence-stance-incurs-beijings-wrath |title=Taiwanese premier's independence stance incurs Beijing's wrath |publisher=TODAYonline |date=28 September 2017 |access-date=6 October 2017}}</ref>
==Government and politics==
{{Main|Government of the Republic of China|Politics of the Republic of China}}
{{See also|Elections in Taiwan|Human rights in Taiwan|North-South divide in Taiwan}}
[[File:Presidential Building, Taiwan (0747).JPG|thumb|Taiwan's popularly elected president resides in the [[Presidential Office Building|Presidential Office Building, Taipei]], originally built in the Japanese era for colonial governors.]]
The government of the Republic of China was founded on the 1947 [[Constitution of the Republic of China|Constitution of the ROC]] and its [[Three Principles of the People]], which states that the ROC "shall be a democratic republic of the people, to be governed by the people and for the people".<ref name="yb:government">{{cite book |title=The Republic of China Yearbook |url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/ |chapter=Chapter 4: Government |chapter-url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/docs/ch04.pdf |pages=55–65 |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan) |year=2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512091917/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/ |archive-date=12 May 2008}}</ref> It underwent significant revisions in the 1990s, known collectively as the Additional Articles. The government is divided into five branches (''Yuan''): the Executive Yuan (cabinet), the Legislative Yuan (Congress or Parliament), the [[Judicial Yuan]], the [[Control Yuan]] (audit agency), and the [[Examination Yuan]] (civil service examination agency).
[[File:蔡英文官方元首肖像照.png|thumb|left|upright|[[Tsai Ing-wen]], [[President of the Republic of China]]]]
The [[head of state]] and [[commander-in-chief]] of the armed forces is the [[President of the Republic of China|president]], who is elected by popular vote for a maximum of 2 four-year terms on the same ticket as the vice-president. The president appoints the members of the Executive Yuan as their cabinet, including a [[Premier of the Republic of China|premier]], who is officially the President of the Executive Yuan; members are responsible for policy and administration.<ref name="yb:government" />
The main [[Legislature|legislative body]] is the [[Unicameralism|unicameral]] Legislative Yuan with 113 seats. Seventy-three are elected by popular vote from single-member constituencies; thirty-four are elected based on the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties in a separate party list ballot; and six are elected from two three-member aboriginal constituencies. Members serve four-year terms. Originally the unicameral National Assembly, as a standing [[Constitutional convention (political meeting)|constitutional convention]] and [[electoral college]], held some parliamentary functions, but the National Assembly was abolished in 2005 with the power of constitutional amendments handed over to the Legislative Yuan and all eligible voters of the Republic via referendums.<ref name="yb:government" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Taiwan assembly passes changes |date=7 June 2005 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4616043.stm}}</ref>
[[File:蘇貞昌院長.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Su Tseng-chang]], [[Premier of the Republic of China]]]]
The premier is selected by the president without the need for approval from the legislature, but the legislature can pass laws without regard for the president, as neither he nor the Premier wields veto power.<ref name="yb:government" /> Thus, there is little incentive for the president and the legislature to negotiate on legislation if they are of opposing parties. After the election of the pan-Green's Chen Shui-bian as President in 2000, legislation repeatedly stalled because of deadlock with the Legislative Yuan, which was controlled by a pan-Blue majority.<ref>{{cite news |last=Huang |first=Jei-hsuan |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2006/09/14/2003327608 |title=Letter: KMT holds the key|newspaper=Taipei Times |date=14 September 2006 |page=8 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> Historically, the ROC has been dominated by strongman single party politics. This legacy has resulted in executive powers currently being concentrated in the office of the president rather than the premier, even though the constitution does not explicitly state the extent of the president's executive power.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jayasuriya|first=Kanishka|title=Law, capitalism and power in Asia|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|page=217|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OqGSrD9QhXcC&pg=PA217|isbn=978-0-415-19743-4}}</ref>
The Judicial Yuan is the highest [[judiciary|judicial]] organ. It interprets the constitution and other laws and decrees, judges administrative suits, and disciplines public functionaries. The president and vice-president of the Judicial Yuan and additional thirteen justices form the Council of Grand Justices.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (2005) |at=Article 5}}</ref> They are nominated and appointed by the president, with the consent of the Legislative Yuan. The highest court, the [[Supreme Court of the Republic of China|Supreme Court]], consists of a number of civil and criminal divisions, each of which is formed by a presiding judge and four associate judges, all appointed for life. In 1993, a separate [[List of constitutional courts|constitutional court]] was established to resolve constitutional disputes, regulate the activities of political parties and accelerate the democratization process. There is no [[jury trial|trial by jury]] but the right to a fair public trial is protected by law and respected in practice; many cases are presided over by multiple judges.<ref name="yb:government" />
The Control Yuan is a watchdog agency that monitors (controls) the actions of the executive. It can be considered a standing [[Government agency|commission]] for administrative inquiry and can be compared to the [[Court of Auditors]] of the [[European Union]] or the [[Government Accountability Office]] of the United States.<ref name="yb:government" /> It is also responsible for the [[National Human Rights Commission (Taiwan)|National Human Rights Commission]].
The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants. It is based on the old [[imperial examination]] system used in dynastic China. It can be compared to the [[European Personnel Selection Office]] of the European Union or the [[Office of Personnel Management]] of the United States.<ref name="yb:government" /> It was downsized in 2019, and there have been calls for its abolition.<ref name="2020amend">{{cite news|url=https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/201912100011|last1=Wang|first1=Yang-yu|last2=Kao|first2=Evelyn|title=Legislature passes revised law to shrink Examination Yuan|work=[[Central News Agency (Taiwan)|Central News Agency]]|date=10 December 2019|access-date=19 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Yang |first1=Mien-chieh |last2=Chung |first2=Jake |title=Examination Yuan at odds with self |url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/08/07/2003741273 |access-date=10 March 2021 |work=[[Taipei Times]]}}</ref>
=== Constitution ===
The constitution was drafted in by the KMT while the ROC still governed the Chinese mainland, went into effect on 25 December 1947.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ginsburg|first=Tom|title=Judicial review in new democracies|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=111|year=2003|isbn=978-0-521-52039-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJrsouEjOZEC&pg=PA111}}</ref> The ROC remained under martial law from 1948 until 1987 and much of the constitution was not in effect.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}} Political reforms beginning in the late 1970s resulted in the end of martial law in 1987, and Taiwan transformed into a multiparty democracy in the early 1990s. The constitutional basis for this transition to democracy was gradually laid in the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China. In addition, these articles localized the Constitution by suspending portions of the Constitution designed for governance of China and replacing them with articles adapted for the governance of and guaranteeing the political rights of residents of the Taiwan Area, as defined in the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yeh |first1=Jiunn-rong |title=The Constitution of Taiwan |date=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1849465120 |pages=3–4}}</ref>
National boundaries were not explicitly prescribed by the 1947 Constitution, and the Constitutional Court declined to define these boundaries in a 1993 interpretation, viewing the question as a political question to be resolved by the Executive and Legislative Yuans.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chang |first1=Ming-hsuan |last2=Mazzetta |first2=Matthew |title=DPP lawmakers seek removal of 'national unification' from Constitution |url=https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202009300019 |access-date=8 March 2021 |work=[[Central News Agency (Taiwan)]] |issue=3 September 2020}}</ref> The 1947 Constitution included articles regarding representatives from former Qing dynasty territories including [[Tibet]] and Mongolia (though it did not specify whether this excluded Outer Mongolia).<ref>{{cite web |title=蒙古不是中華民國固有之疆域 |url=https://features.ltn.com.tw/spring/article/2017/breakingnews/2228191 |website=自由時報 [[Liberty Times]] |access-date=6 February 2021 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203153813/https://features.ltn.com.tw/spring/article/2017/breakingnews/2228191}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) |url=https://english.president.gov.tw/page/94 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> The ROC recognized [[Mongolia]] as an independent country in 1946 after signing the 1945 [[Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance]], but after retreating to Taiwan in 1949 it reneged on its agreement in order to preserve its claim over China.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Keith Allan II |title=Imagined Territory: The Republic of China's 1955 Veto of Mongolian Membership in the United Nations |journal=Journal of American-East Asian Relations |date=3 September 2018 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=263–295 |doi=10.1163/18765610-02503003}}</ref> The Additional Articles of the 1990s did not alter national boundaries, but suspended articles regarding Mongolian and Tibetan representatives. The ROC began to accept the Mongolian passport and removed clauses referring to Outer Mongolia from the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area in 2002.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1842387.stm |title = Taiwan 'embassy' changes anger China |publisher = BBC News |date = 26 February 2002 |access-date = 14 February 2021}}</ref> In 2012 the Mainland Affairs Council issued a statement clarifying that Outer Mongolia was not part of the ROC's national territory in 1947,<ref>{{cite news |title=Mongolia not within national boundary under ROC Constitution: MAC |url=https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/201205210043 |access-date=8 March 2021 |work=[[Central News Agency (Taiwan)]] |date=21 May 2012}}</ref> and that the termination of the Sino-Soviet Treaty had not altered national territory according to the Constitution.<ref>{{cite news |title=有關外蒙古是否為中華民國領土問題說明新聞參考資料 |trans-title=Reference materials about the territory of the Republic of China exclude Outer Mongolia |url=http://www.mac.gov.tw/public/Attachment/252122204856.pdf |access-date=22 May 2012 |agency=[[Mainland Affairs Council]] |language=zh-tw}}</ref> The [[Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission]] in the Executive Yuan was abolished in 2017.
===Major camps===
{{multiple image
| width = 100
| footer =
| image1 =
| alt1 = A circular logo representing the island of Taiwan surrounded by the text "DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY" and "民主進步黨"
| caption1 = The [[Democratic Progressive Party]], the main [[Pan-Green Coalition]] party
| image2 = Emblem of the Kuomintang.svg
| alt2 = A circular logo representing a white sun on a blue background. The sun is a circle surrounded by twelve triangles.
| caption2 = Emblem of the [[Kuomintang]], the main [[Pan-Blue Coalition]] party
}}
Taiwan's political scene is divided into two major camps in terms of cross-Strait relations, i.e. how Taiwan should relate to China or the PRC. The Pan-Green Coalition (e.g. the Democratic Progressive Party) leans pro-independence, and the Pan-Blue Coalition (e.g. the Kuomintang) leans pro-unification. Moderates in both camps regard the Republic of China as a sovereign independent state, but the Pan-Green Coalition regard the ROC as [[Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China|synonymous with Taiwan]], while moderates in the Pan-Blue Coalition view it as [[1992 Consensus|synonymous with China]]. These positions formed against the backdrop of the PRC's [[Anti-Secession Law]], which threatens invasion in the event of formal independence.
[[File:Wu San-lien after election.jpg|thumb|left|Taiwanese-born [[Tangwai]] ("independent") politician [[Wu San-lien]] (second left) celebrates with supporters his landslide victory of 65.5 per cent in [[Taipei]]'s first mayoral election in January 1951.]]
The [[Pan-Green Coalition]] is composed of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and [[Taiwan Statebuilding Party]] (TSP). They oppose the idea that Taiwan is part of China, and seeks wide diplomatic recognition and an eventual declaration of formal [[Taiwan independence]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/independence_debate.stm |title=Taiwan Flashpoint: Independence Debate |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=BBC News |publisher=BBC |access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=March 2021}} In September 2007, the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party approved a resolution asserting separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "''normal country''". It called also for general use of "''Taiwan''" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the "Republic of China".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-30-taiwan_N.htm |title=Taiwan party asserts separate identity from China |newspaper=USA Today |date=30 September 2007 |access-date=29 May 2009}}</ref> The name "Taiwan" has been used increasingly often after the emergence of the Taiwanese independence movement.<ref name="NYT2008"/> Some members of the coalition, such as former President Chen Shui-bian, argue that it is unnecessary to proclaim independence because "Taiwan is already an independent, sovereign country" and the Republic of China is the same as Taiwan.<ref>{{cite web|author=Crisis Group |url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1653&l=1 |title=Taiwan Strait I: What's Left of 'One China'?|publisher=International Crisis Group |date=6 June 2003 |access-date=29 May 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080709035143/http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1653&l=1 |archive-date = 9 July 2008}}</ref> Despite being a member of KMT prior to and during his presidency, Lee Teng-hui also held a similar view and was a supporter of the [[Taiwanization]] movement.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shirk|first=Susan L.|title=China: Fragile Superpower|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-530609-5|url=https://archive.org/details/chinafragilesupe00shir}}</ref>
The [[Pan-Blue Coalition]], composed of the pro-unification Kuomintang, [[People First Party (Republic of China)|People First Party]] (PFP) and [[New Party (Republic of China)|New Party]] generally support the spirit of the 1992 Consensus, where the KMT declared that there is one China, but that the ROC and PRC have different interpretations of what "China" means. They favour eventual re-unification of China.<ref name="panblue-reunif-chineseid">{{Cite book|last=Pares|first=Susan |title=A political and economic dictionary of East Asia|publisher=Routledge|date=24 February 2005|page=267|isbn=978-1-85743-258-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJKePP5ATKUC|quote=The Pan-Blue coalition on the whole favours a Chinese nationalist identity and policies supporting reunification and increased economic links with the People's Republic of China.}}</ref> The more mainstream Pan-Blue position is to lift investment restrictions and pursue negotiations with the PRC to immediately open direct transportation links. Regarding independence, the mainstream Pan-Blue position is to maintain the status quo, while refusing immediate reunification.<ref name="ma-three-noes">{{cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/01/21/2003398185 |title=Looking behind Ma's 'three noes'|newspaper=Taipei Times |date=21 January 2008 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> President Ma Ying-jeou stated that there will be no unification nor declaration of independence during his presidency.<ref name="MasClaimtoMainland">{{Cite news |last=Ko |first=Shu-Ling |title=Ma refers to China as ROC territory in magazine interview|newspaper=Taipei Times|date=8 October 2008|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/08/2003425320}}</ref><ref name="chinapost.com.tw">{{Cite news|title=Taiwan and China in 'special relations': Ma|newspaper=China Post|date=4 September 2008|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan%20relations/2008/09/04/173082/Taiwan-and.htm}}</ref> {{As of|2009}}, Pan-Blue members usually seek to improve relationships with mainland China, with a current focus on improving economic ties.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4482617.stm |title=World | Asia-Pacific | Taiwan opposition leader in China |work=BBC News |date=26 April 2005 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
===National identity===
{{Main|Taiwanese people#The current state of Taiwanese identity}} {{See also|Opinion polling on Taiwanese identity}}
[[File:National Chengchi University identity survey.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Results from an identity survey conducted each year from 1992 to 2020 by the Election Study Center, [[National Chengchi University]].<ref name="nccu"/> Responses are Taiwanese (green), Chinese (red) or Both Taiwanese and Chinese (hatched). No response is shown as grey.]]
Roughly 84 per cent of Taiwan's population are descendants of Han Chinese immigrants from Qing China between 1683 and 1895. Another significant fraction descends from Han Chinese who immigrated from mainland China in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The shared cultural origin combined with several hundred years of geographical separation, some hundred years of political separation and foreign influences, as well as hostility between the rival ROC and PRC have resulted in national identity being a contentious issue with political overtones.
Since democratic reforms and the lifting of martial law, a distinct Taiwanese identity (as opposed to Taiwanese identity as a subset of a Chinese identity) is often at the heart of political debates. Its acceptance makes the island distinct from mainland China, and therefore may be seen as a step towards forming a consensus for ''de jure'' Taiwan independence.<ref name="power-shift">{{Cite book|last=Shambaugh|first=David L.|title=Power shift|publisher=University of California Press|year=2006|pages=179–183 |isbn=978-0-520-24570-9}}</ref> The Pan-Green camp supports a predominantly Taiwanese identity (although "Chinese" may be viewed as cultural heritage), while the Pan-Blue camp supports a predominantly Chinese identity (with "Taiwanese" as a regional/diasporic Chinese identity).<ref name="panblue-reunif-chineseid" /> The KMT has downplayed this stance in the recent years and now supports a Taiwanese identity as part of a Chinese identity.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20081230ho.html|title=No sign of a 'peace agreement'|last=Okazaki|first=Hisahiko|date=30 December 2008|newspaper=Japan Times|access-date=15 July 2009|quote=For one thing, I believe there is recognition that the awareness of Taiwanese identity is now irreversible. The KMT government did things like rename the "Taiwan Post" to "Chunghwa Post" as soon as it came in. But it did not take much time to perceive that it would cause a backlash among the Taiwan populace. The cross-strait exchanges have also brought about opposition demonstrations from time to time. This appears to be one of the reasons for the abrupt decline in the approval rating of the Ma administration.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211639,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024135148/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211639,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 October 2007|title=10 Questions: Ma Ying-jeou|date=10 July 2006|newspaper=Time|access-date=15 July 2009|quote=I am Taiwanese as well as Chinese.}}</ref>
In annual polls conducted by National Chengchi University, Taiwanese identification has increased substantially since the early 1990s, while Chinese identification has fallen to a low level, and identification as both has also seen a reduction. In 1992, 17.6 percent of respondents identified as Taiwanese, 25.5 percent as Chinese, 46.4 percent as both, and 10.5 percent non-response. In June 2021, 63.3 percent identified as Taiwanese, 2.6 percent as Chinese, 31.4 percent as both, and 2.7 percent non-response.<ref name="nccu">{{cite web |title=Taiwanese / Chinese Identity(1992/06~2021/06) |url=https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7800&id=6961 |website=Election Study Center |publisher=[[National Chengchi University]] |access-date=27 October 2021}}</ref> A survey conducted in Taiwan by Global Views Survey Research Center in July 2009 showed that 82.8 percent of respondents consider the ROC and the PRC as two separate countries with each developing on its own but 80.2 percent think they are members of the Chinese.<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429190528/http://www.gvm.com.tw/gvsrc/200907_GVSRC_others_E.pdf|url=http://www.gvm.com.tw/gvsrc/200907_GVSRC_others_E.pdf|archive-date=29 April 2011|title=Survey on President Ma's Approval Rating and Cross-Strait Relations After First Year of Direct Flights|date=24 July 2009|publisher=Global Views Survey Research Center|access-date=3 December 2014}}</ref>
===Administrative divisions===
{{Main|Administrative divisions of Taiwan}}
Taiwan is, in practice, divided into 22 subnational divisions, each with a self-governing body led by an elected leader and a legislative body with elected members. Duties of local governments include social services, education, urban planning, public construction, water management, environmental protection, transport, public safety, and more.
There are three types of subnational divisions: special municipalities, counties, and cities. Special municipalities and cities are further divided into districts for local administration. Counties are further divided into townships and county-administered cities which have elected mayors and councils, and share duties with the county. Some divisions are indigenous divisions which have different degrees of autonomy to standard ones. In addition, districts, cities and townships are further divided into villages and neighbourhoods.
{{Administrative divisions of Taiwan|map=show}}
==Military==
{{Main|Republic of China Armed Forces}}
{{See also|Republic of China Military Academy}}
[[File:Thunderbolt 2000 MLRS Side View 20111105a.jpg|thumb|[[Republic of China Army]] [[Thunderbolt-2000]]]]
The [[Republic of China Army]] takes its roots in the [[National Revolutionary Army]], which was established by [[Sun Yat-sen]] in 1925 in [[Guangdong]] with a goal of reunifying China under the Kuomintang. When the [[People's Liberation Army]] won the Chinese Civil War, much of the National Revolutionary Army retreated to Taiwan along with the government. It was later reformed into the Republic of China Army. Units which surrendered and remained in mainland China were either disbanded or incorporated into the People's Liberation Army.
The ROC and the United States signed the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in 1954, and established the [[United States Taiwan Defense Command]]. About 30,000 US troops were stationed in Taiwan, until the United States established diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1979.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shortall|first1=Dominick|last2=Johnson|first2=Jesse|date=28 October 2020|title=Once unimaginable, some now debating return of U.S. forces to Taiwan|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/28/asia-pacific/us-forces-taiwan-china/|access-date=6 January 2021|website=The Japan Times|language=en-US}}</ref>
Today, Taiwan maintains a large and technologically advanced military, mainly as a defence to the constant threat of invasion by the People's Liberation Army using the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China as a pretext. This law authorizes the use of military force when certain conditions are met, such as a danger to mainlanders.<ref name=2004NatDefRpt />
From 1949 to the 1970s, the primary mission of the Taiwanese military was to "retake mainland China" through Project National Glory. As this mission has transitioned away from attack because the relative strength of the PRC has massively increased, the ROC military has begun to shift emphasis from the traditionally dominant Army to the [[Republic of China Air Force|air force]] and [[Republic of China Navy|navy]].
[[File:IDF Pre-production.jpg|thumb|[[Republic of China Air Force]] [[AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo|indigenously produced fighter]] airplane in [[Ching Chuan Kang Air Base]]
|alt=A light fighter aircraft on the ground with two men who are maintaining it.]]
Control of the armed forces has also passed into the hands of the civilian government.<ref name=towards>{{cite journal|last=Fravel|first=M. Taylor|title=Towards Civilian Supremacy: Civil-Military Relations in Taiwans's Democratization|journal=Armed Forces & Society|year=2002|volume=29|issue=1|pages=57–84|doi=10.1177/0095327X0202900104|s2cid=146212666|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/510e/42aa20fb53c1a69b45b48b0b55b34117b361.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212081044/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/510e/42aa20fb53c1a69b45b48b0b55b34117b361.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB988242686540854310?mod=googlewsj |title=Committed to Taiwan |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date= 26 April 2001|access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> As the ROC military shares historical roots with the KMT, the older generation of high-ranking officers tends to have Pan-Blue sympathies. However, many have retired and there are many more non-mainlanders enlisting in the armed forces in the younger generations, so the political leanings of the military have moved closer to the public norm in Taiwan.{{sfn|Swaine|Mulvenon|2001|p=65|ps=: "[...]the ROC military functioned until very recently as an instrument of KMT rule [...] the bulk of the officer corps is still composed of mainlanders, many of whom allegedly continue to support the values and outlook of more conservative KMT and New Party members. This is viewed as especially the case among the senior officers of the ROC Army. Hence, many DPP leaders insist that the first step to building a more secure Taiwan is to bring the military more fully under civilian control, to remove the dominant influence of conservative KMT elements, and to reduce what is regarded as an excessive emphasis on the maintenance of inappropriate ground force capabilities, as opposed to more appropriate air and naval capabilities."}}
The ROC began a force reduction plan, ''Jingshi An'' (translated to streamlining program), to scale down its military from a level of 450,000 in 1997 to 380,000 in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2004/P101.htm |title=Taiwan Yearbook 2004 |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106230514/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2004/P101.htm |archive-date=6 January 2012}}</ref> {{As of|2009}}, the armed forces of the ROC number approximately 300,000,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=28601&ctNode=3389|title=Women Take Command|last=Bishop|first=Mac William|date=1 January 2004|publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China|access-date=5 June 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428091100/http://www.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=28601&ctNode=3389|archive-date=28 April 2011}}</ref> with nominal reserves totalling 3.6 million {{As of|2015|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2005/p104.html |title=Taiwan Yearbook 2005 |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China |access-date=28 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127214132/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/2005/p104.html |archive-date=27 January 2010}}</ref> Conscription remains universal for qualified males reaching age eighteen, but as a part of the reduction effort many are given the opportunity to fulfill their draft requirement through alternative service and are redirected to government agencies or arms related industries.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/729500.stm |title=ASIA-PACIFIC | Military alternative in Taiwan |work=BBC News |date=1 May 2000 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> Current plans call for a transition to a predominantly professional army over the next decade.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/03/21/2003439010/wiki |title=The myth: a professional military in five years|newspaper=Taipei Times |date=21 March 2009 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.straitstimes.com/print/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_347888.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090313072548/http://www.straitstimes.com/print/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_347888.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 March 2009 |title=Taiwan to end conscription |newspaper=The Straits Times |date=9 March 2009 |access-date=28 May 2009 }}</ref> Conscription periods are planned to decrease from 14 months to 12.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=BBAB&d_place=BBAB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=124D9E23B9033ED0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title=Taiwan to shorten conscription term to one year |publisher=Central News Agency website, Taipei|date=3 December 2008 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref> In the last months of the Bush administration, Taipei took the decision to reverse the trend of declining military spending, at a time when most Asian countries kept on reducing their military expenditures. It also decided to strengthen both defensive and offensive capabilities. Taipei still keeps a large military apparatus relative to the island's population: military expenditures for 2008 were NTD 334 billion (approximately US $10.5 billion), which accounted for 2.94 per cent of GDP.
[[File:ROCAF C-130H 1307 Taxiing at Songshan Air Force Base 20160924.jpg|thumb|The [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules|C-130H]] in [[Songshan Airport|Songshan AFB]]]]
The armed forces' primary concern at this time, according to the ''National Defense Report'', is the possibility of an invasion by the PRC, consisting of a naval blockade, airborne assault or missile bombardment.<ref name=towards /> Four upgraded [[Kidd class destroyer|''Kidd''-class destroyers]] were purchased from the United States, and commissioned into the Republic of China Navy in 2005–2006, significantly upgrading Taiwan's protection from aerial attack and submarine hunting abilities.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Kidd-class warships set sail for Taiwan |date=31 October 2005 |newspaper=Taipei Times |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/10/31/2003278135}}</ref> The Ministry of National Defense planned to purchase diesel-powered submarines and Patriot anti-missile batteries from the United States, but its budget has been stalled repeatedly by the opposition-Pan-Blue Coalition controlled legislature. The military package was stalled from 2001 to 2007 where it was finally passed through the legislature and the US responded on 3 October 2008, with a $6.5 billion arms package including PAC III Anti-Air systems, AH-64D Apache Attack helicopters and other arms and parts.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Taiwanese leader hails weapons deal with US |date=5 October 2008 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/04/AR2008100400477.html | first=Jane | last=Rickards}}</ref> A significant amount of military hardware has been bought from the United States, and, {{As of|2009|lc=y}}, continues to be legally guaranteed by the Taiwan Relations Act.<ref name="TRA-review" /> In the past, France and the Netherlands have also sold military weapons and hardware to the ROC, but they almost entirely stopped in the 1990s under pressure of the PRC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/july01/jpcabest.pdf|title=France's Taiwan Policy: A Case of Shopkeeper Diplomacy|last=Cabestan|first=Jean-Pierre|year=2001|publisher=CERI|access-date=5 June 2009|quote=By excluding the French companies from the bidding lists of many contract, Peking wanted above all to stop a growing trend (...) to disregard its objections and interests in the Taiwan issue. (...) In spite of the ban of arms sales to Taiwan approved by the French government in January 1994, discreet and small-sized deals have continued to be concluded since then. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-09-24-taiwan_x.htm |title=Taiwan trying to shore up weapons support |newspaper=USA Today |date=24 September 2004 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
The first line of protection against invasion by the PRC is the ROC's own armed forces. Current ROC military doctrine is to hold out against an invasion or blockade until the US military responds.<ref name="swaine">{{Cite book|last1=Swaine |first1=Michael D.|author-link1=Michael D. Swaine|first2=James C.|last2=Mulvenon|title=Taiwan's Foreign and Defense Policies: Features and Determinants |orig-year=2001 |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2009/MR1383.pdf |access-date=23 May 2015 |publisher=RAND Corporation |isbn=978-0-8330-3094-8 |year=2001 }}</ref> There is, however, no guarantee in the Taiwan Relations Act or any other treaty that the United States will defend Taiwan, even in the event of invasion.<ref>{{Cite news|title=China Threat to Attack Taiwan Alarms Asia |date=14 March 2005 |agency=Associated Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050411032736/http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2005%2F03%2F14%2Finternational%2Fi003051S91.DTL |url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/14/international/i003051S91.DTL |archive-date=11 April 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The joint declaration on security between the US and Japan signed in 1996 may imply that Japan would be involved in any response. However, Japan has refused to stipulate whether the "area surrounding Japan" mentioned in the pact includes Taiwan, and the precise purpose of the pact is unclear.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kapstein|first=Ethan B. |author2=Michael Mastanduno |title=Unipolar politics|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=194|isbn=978-0-231-11309-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=68s2k0ztkCMC&pg=PA194|year=1999|quote=The Japanese leadership openly split on whether a crisis in Taiwan was included in the geographic expression "area surrounding Japan." In the event, Japan refused to stipulate the contingencies under which it would provide rear area support for U.S. forces or even the geographic scope of the "area surrounding Japan". (...) The two sides have not articulated clearly what the alliance stands ''for'', nor who it is defined to protect ''against''.}}</ref> The [[Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty]] (ANZUS Treaty) may mean that other US allies, such as Australia, could theoretically be involved.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tow |first=William |year=2005 |title=ANZUS: Regional versus Global Security in Asia? |journal=International Relations of the Asia-Pacific |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=197–216 |doi= 10.1093/irap/lci113 }}</ref><ref name="sei21">{{cite news |title=China reacts to Peter Duttons 'jaw-dropping' promise to defend Taiwan |first=Jamie |last=Seidel |date=2021-10-31 |work=news.com.au |publisher=Nationwide News |url=https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/china-reacts-to-peter-duttons-jawdropping-promise-to-defend-taiwan/news-story/3644a042edd36c1b141a38017acf61e3 |access-date=2021-11-13 |quote=The Republic of China autocracy-turned-democracy didn't surrender to the Communist Party uprising during the 1949 civil war. It has no intention of doing so now. Now Taipei's own defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, says his country is prepared to defend itself alone, if necessary. "The country must rely on itself," he told media Thursday. "If any friends or other groups can help us, then we’re happy to have it. But we cannot completely depend on it." }}</ref> While this would risk damaging economic ties with China,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/13/1089694360063.html|title=China and Taiwan: flashpoint for a war|date=14 July 2004|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=13 June 2009}}</ref> a conflict over Taiwan could lead to an economic blockade of China by a greater coalition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mirski |first1=Sean |title=Stranglehold: The Context, Conduct and Consequences of an American Naval Blockade of China |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/02/12/stranglehold-context-conduct-and-consequences-of-american-naval-blockade-of-china-pub-51135 |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |publisher=Journal Of Strategic Studies |access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Lague |first1=David |last2=Kang Lim |first2=Benjamin |title=China's fear of an American blockade |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-army-blockade/chinas-fear-of-an-american-blockade-idUSKCN1S6140 |website=Reuters |date=30 April 2019 |agency=Reuters |access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Axe |first1=David |title=To Defeat China In War, Strangle Its Economy: Expert |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/08/24/to-defeat-china-in-war-strangle-its-economy/ |website=Forbes |access-date=15 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |title=After "the War that Never Was"—The Real Beginning |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/september/after-war-never-was-real-beginning |website=U.S. Naval Institute |publisher=U.S. Naval Institute |access-date=15 January 2021 |language=en |date=29 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Mehra |first1=Jyotsna |title=The Australia-India-Japan-US Quadrilateral: Dissecting the China Factor |url=https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-australia-india-japan-us-quadrilateral/ |website=ORF |publisher=Observer Research Foundation |access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref>
==Economy==
{{Main|Economy of Taiwan|Economic history of Taiwan}}
[[File:Sun Down (250260941).jpeg|thumb|upright|[[Taipei 101]] held the world record for skyscraper height from 2004 to 2010.|alt=Photo of Taipei 101 tower against a blue sky.]]
The quick industrialization and rapid growth of Taiwan during the latter half of the 20th century has been called the "Taiwan Miracle". Taiwan is one of the "Four Asian Tigers" alongside Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
Japanese rule prior to and during World War II brought changes in the public and private sectors, most notably in the area of public works, which enabled rapid communications and facilitated transport throughout much of the island. The Japanese also improved public education and made it compulsory for all residents of Taiwan. By 1945, hyperinflation was in progress in mainland China and Taiwan as a result of the war with Japan. To isolate Taiwan from it, the Nationalist government created a new currency area for the island, and began a price stabilization programme. These efforts significantly slowed inflation.
When the KMT government fled to Taiwan it brought millions of [[tael]]s (where 1 tael = 37.5 g or ~1.2 [[troy ounce|ozt]]) of gold and the foreign currency reserve of mainland China, which, according to the KMT, stabilized prices and reduced hyperinflation.<ref>{{cite web|date=6 April 2011|title=Gold Shipped to Taiwan in 1949 Helped Stabilize ROC on Taiwan|url=http://www.kmt.org.tw/english/page.aspx?type=article&mnum=112&anum=9442|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927081949/http://www.kmt.org.tw/english/page.aspx?type=article&mnum=112&anum=9442|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 September 2011|newspaper=Kuomintang News Network|access-date=14 June 2011}} Translated from {{cite news |author=王銘義 |date=5 April 2011 |script-title=zh:1949年運台黃金 中華民國保命本 |newspaper=China Times |url=http://forums.chinatimes.com/report/goldfile/series-cnt0405ct02.htm |access-date=21 February 2015 |archive-date=21 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221165535/http://forums.chinatimes.com/report/goldfile/series-cnt0405ct02.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Perhaps more importantly, as part of its retreat to Taiwan, the KMT brought the intellectual and business elites from mainland China.<ref>{{cite book | last =Roy | first =Denny | title =Taiwan: A Political History | url =https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn | url-access =registration | publisher =Cornell University Press |year=2003 | location =Ithaca, NY | pages =[https://archive.org/details/taiwan00denn/page/76 76], 77 | isbn =978-0-8014-8805-4 }}</ref> The KMT government instituted many laws and [[land reform]]s that it had never effectively enacted on mainland China. The government also implemented a policy of [[import substitution industrialization|import-substitution]], attempting to produce imported goods domestically.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shih|first=Da-Nien Liu and Hui-Tzu|date=4 December 2013|title=The Transformation of Taiwan's Status Within the Production and Supply Chain in Asia|url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-transformation-of-taiwans-status-within-the-production-and-supply-chain-in-asia/|access-date=6 January 2021|website=Brookings|language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States began an aid programme which resulted in fully stabilized prices by 1952.<ref>{{harvnb|Makinen|Woodward|1989}}: "It was the fiscal regime change on Taiwan, as in the European episodes, that finally brought price stability. It was the aid policy that brought the budget to near balance, and when the aid programme reached its full proportions in 1952, prices stabilized."</ref> Economic development was encouraged by American economic aid and programmes such as the [[Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction]], which turned the agricultural sector into the basis for later growth. Under the combined stimulus of the land reform and the agricultural development programmes, agricultural production increased at an average annual rate of 4 per cent from 1952 to 1959, which was greater than the population growth, 3.6 per cent.<ref>Ralph Clough, "Taiwan under Nationalist Rule, 1949–1982," in Roderick MacFarquar et al., ed., ''Cambridge History of China'', Vol 15, The People's Republic Pt 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 837</ref>
In 1962, Taiwan had a (nominal) per-capita gross national product (GNP) of $170, placing its economy on a par with those of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On a [[purchasing power parity]] (PPP) basis, its GDP per capita in the early 1960s was $1,353 (in 1990 prices). By 2011 per-capita GNP, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), had risen to $37,000, contributing to a [[Human Development Index]] (HDI) equivalent to that of other developed countries. In 2019, the HDI calculated by Taiwan's government was the [[List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index|seventh-highest in the Asia-Pacific region]].<ref name="HDI 2019"/>
[[File:Neihu during 2015 winter solstice.jpg|thumb|[[Neihu District|Neihu Technology Park]] in Taipei]]
In 1974, Chiang Ching-kuo implemented the [[Ten Major Construction Projects]], the beginning foundations that helped Taiwan transform into its current export driven economy. Since the 1990s, a number of Taiwan-based technology firms have expanded their reach around the world. Well-known international technology companies headquartered in Taiwan include personal computer manufacturers [[Acer Inc.]] and [[Asus]], mobile phone maker [[HTC]], as well as electronics manufacturing giant [[Foxconn]], which makes products for [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], and [[Microsoft]]. [[Computex Taipei]] is a major computer expo, held since 1981.
Today Taiwan has a dynamic, capitalist, export-driven economy with gradually decreasing state involvement in investment and foreign trade. In keeping with this trend, some large government-owned banks and industrial firms are being [[Privatization|privatized]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1153&CtNode=128|title=Privatization Set in Motion|last=Her|first=Kelly|date=12 January 2005|newspaper=Taiwan Review|access-date=5 June 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430041754/http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1153&CtNode=128|archive-date=30 April 2011}}</ref> Real growth in GDP has averaged about 8 per cent during the past three decades. Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is substantial, and foreign reserves are the world's fifth largest.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2188rank.html
| title = Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
| work = [[World Fact Book]]
| publisher = [[CIA]]
| date = 4 September 2008
| access-date = 3 January 2011
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070613005020/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2188rank.html
| archive-date = 13 June 2007
| url-status=live
| quote = Rank 5 Taiwan $274,700,000,000 31 December 2007
}}</ref> The currency of Taiwan is the [[New Taiwan dollar]].
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the economic ties between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China have been very prolific. {{As of|2008}}, more than US$150 billion<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8475215.stm|title=Taiwan's Grand Hotel welcome for Chinese visitors|work=BBC News|date=23 January 2010 | first=Phil | last=Harding}}</ref> have been invested in the PRC by Taiwanese companies. Although the economy of Taiwan benefits from this situation, some have expressed the view that the island has become increasingly dependent on the mainland Chinese economy. A 2008 white paper by the Department of Industrial Technology states that "Taiwan should seek to maintain stable relation with China while continuing to protect national security, and avoiding excessive 'Sinicization' of Taiwanese economy."<ref>{{Harvnb|DoIT|2008|p=5}} "Although used-to-be-hostile tension between Taiwan and China has been eased to a certain degree, Taiwan should seek to maintain stable relation with China while continuing to protect national security, and avoiding excessive "Sinicization" of Taiwanese economy. Strategies to avoid excessive "Sinicization" of the Taiwanese economy could include efforts to increase geographic diversity of overseas Taiwanese employment, diversifying Taiwan's export markets and investment. "</ref> Others argue that close economic ties between Taiwan and mainland China would make any military intervention by the PLA against Taiwan very costly, and therefore less probable.<ref>BBC News, "Taiwan Flashpoint", "Some Taiwanese worry their economy is now dependent on China. Others point out that closer business ties makes Chinese military action less likely, because of the cost to China's own economy."</ref>
Taiwan's total trade in 2010 reached an all-time high of US$526.04 billion, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Finance. Both exports and imports for the year reached record levels, totalling US$274.64 billion and US$251.4 billion, respectively.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wang |first=Audrey |url=http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=142731&ctNode=453&mp=9|title=Taiwan's 2010 trade hits record high|newspaper=Taiwan Today|date=10 January 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Paddy field, Yilan 02.jpg|thumb|Rice paddy fields in [[Yilan County, Taiwan|Yilan County]]]]
In 2001, agriculture constituted only 2 per cent of GDP, down from 35 per cent in 1952.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=242 |title=US-Taiwan FTA would have limited impact |publisher=bilaterals.org |access-date=28 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510102658/http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=242 |archive-date=10 May 2006 }}</ref> Traditional labour-intensive industries are steadily being moved offshore and with more capital and technology-intensive industries replacing them. High-technology industrial parks have sprung up in every region in Taiwan. The ROC has become a major foreign investor in the PRC, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. It is estimated that some 50,000 Taiwanese businesses and 1,000,000 businesspeople and their dependents are established in the PRC.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Morris |first=Peter |title=Taiwan business in China supports opposition |date=4 February 2004 |newspaper=Asia Times Online |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FB04Ad04.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040213004300/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FB04Ad04.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=13 February 2004}}</ref>
Because of its conservative financial approach and its entrepreneurial strengths, Taiwan suffered little compared with many of its neighbours in the [[1997 Asian financial crisis]]. Unlike its neighbours, South Korea and Japan, the Taiwanese economy is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, rather than the large business groups. The global economic downturn, however, combined with poor policy co-ordination by the new administration and increasing bad debts in the banking system, pushed Taiwan into [[recession]] in 2001, the first whole year of negative growth since 1947. Due to the relocation of many manufacturing and labour-intensive industries to the PRC, unemployment also reached a level not seen since the 1970s oil crisis. This became a major issue in the [[2004 Republic of China presidential election|2004 presidential election]]. Growth averaged more than 4 per cent in the 2002–2006 period and the unemployment rate fell below 4 per cent.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5411/is_199801/ai_n21432097/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608110113/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5411/is_199801/ai_n21432097/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 June 2009 |title=Coping with Asian financial crisis: The Taiwan experience | Seoul Journal of Economics |publisher=Find Articles at BNET |date=28 April 2009 |access-date=28 May 2009}}</ref>
The ROC often joins international organizations (especially ones that also include the People's Republic of China) under a politically neutral name. The ROC has been a member of governmental trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization under the name Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei) since 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wto.org/english/theWTO_e/countries_e/chinese_taipei_e.htm|title=Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei) and the WTO|publisher=World Trade Organization|access-date=7 June 2009}}</ref>
==Transport==
{{Main|Transportation in Taiwan}}
[[File:China Airlines Lineup TPE.jpg|thumb|[[China Airlines]] aircraft line-up at [[Taoyuan International Airport]]]]
The [[Ministry of Transportation and Communications (Republic of China)|Ministry of Transportation and Communications]] of the Republic of China is the cabinet-level governing body of the transport network in Taiwan.
Civilian transport in Taiwan is characterised by extensive use of [[Scooter (motorcycle)|scooters]]. In March 2019, 13.86 million were registered, twice that of cars.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=zh:交通部統計查詢網 |url=http://stat.motc.gov.tw/mocdb/stmain.jsp?sys=100 |website=stat.motc.gov.tw |access-date=6 May 2019 |language=zh}}</ref>
Both highways and railways are concentrated near the coasts, where the majority of the population resides, with {{convert|1619|km|abbr=on}} of [[Controlled-access highway|motorway]].
Railways in Taiwan are primarily used for passenger services, with [[Taiwan Railway Administration]] (TRA) operating a circular route and [[Taiwan High Speed Rail]] (THSR) running high speed services on the west coast. Urban transit systems include [[Taipei Metro]], [[Kaohsiung Rapid Transit]], [[Taoyuan Metro]] and [[New Taipei Metro]].
Major airports include [[Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport|Taiwan Taoyuan]], [[Kaohsiung International Airport|Kaohsiung]], [[Taipei Songshan Airport|Taipei Songshan]] and [[Taichung Airport|Taichung]]. There are currently seven airlines in Taiwan, the largest ones being [[China Airlines]] and [[EVA Air]].
There are four international seaports: [[Port of Keelung|Keelung]], [[Port of Kaohsiung|Kaohsiung]], [[Port of Taichung|Taichung]], and [[Port of Hualien|Hualien]].
==Education==
{{Main|Education in Taiwan|Academia Sinica|History of education in Taiwan}}
{{See also|Scholarships in Taiwan|Economy of Taiwan#Science}}
Taiwan's higher education system was established by Japan during the colonial period. However, after the Republic of China took over in 1945, the system was promptly replaced by the same system as in mainland China which mixed features of the Chinese and American educational systems.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Postiglione|first=Gerard A.|author2=Grace C. L. Mak |title=Asian higher education|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1997|pages=346–348|isbn=978-0-313-28901-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTE8KCespeEC&pg=PA347}}</ref>
[[File:Vanessa Yuan at Yilan, Taiwan, School programme.jpg|thumb|Children at a Taiwanese school]]
Taiwan is well known for adhering to the Confucian paradigm of valuing education as a means to improve one's socioeconomic position in society.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://journals.openedition.org/ries/3800 | title=A matter of trust: shadow education in Taiwan | author=Prudence Chou, Chuing | journal=[[OpenEdition.org|OpenEdition]] | year=2014}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{cite web |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/fears-over-over-education-in-taiwan/news-story/aeae2a2d83898f684fd0ac5aaffd5816 |title=Fears over over-education in Taiwan |date= 3 September 2012 |website=The Australian}}</ref> Heavy investment and a cultural valuing of education has catapulted the resource-poor nation consistently to the top of global education rankings. Taiwan is one of the top-performing countries in reading literacy, mathematics and sciences. In 2015, Taiwanese students achieved one of the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the [[Programme for International Student Assessment]] (PISA), with the average student scoring 519, compared with the OECD average of 493, placing it seventh in the world.<ref>{{cite web |title=PISA – Results in Focus |publisher=OECD |url=https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf|page=5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=TWN&treshold=10&topic=PI | title=Chinese Taipei Student performance (PISA 2015) | publisher=OECD | access-date=19 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-of-math-science-reading-skills-2016-12 |title=The latest ranking of top countries in math, reading, and science is out – and the US didn't crack the top 10 |last= Kiersz |first=Andy |date=16 December 2016}}</ref>
The Taiwanese education system has been praised for various reasons, including its comparatively high test results and its major role in promoting Taiwan's economic development while creating one of the world's most highly educated workforces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://isc.bc.edu/PDF/t03_download/T03_M_Chap1.pdf|title=TIMSS Math 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://isc.bc.edu/PDF/t03_download/T03_S_Chap1.pdf| title= TIMSS Science 2003}}</ref> Taiwan has also been praised for its high university entrance rate where the university acceptance rate has increased from around 20 per cent before the 1980s to 49 per cent in 1996 and over 95 per cent since 2008, among the highest in Asia.<ref name="auto3">{{cite web |url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/education-in-taiwan-taiwans-colleges-and-universities/ |title=Education in Taiwan: Taiwan's Colleges and Universities |last=Chou |first=Chuing |date=12 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/07/taiwan-too-many-college-graduates/26945515/ | title=Taiwan's problem? Too many college graduates, too few machinists | work=USA Today | date=7 May 2015 | access-date=19 August 2019 | author=Wiese, Elizabeth}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web | url=https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/higher-education-crisis-taiwan | title=Higher Education Crisis in Taiwan | website=Inside Higher Ed | date=5 August 2018 | access-date=19 August 2019 | author=Hsueh, Chia-Ming}}</ref> The nation's high university entrance rate has created a highly skilled workforce making Taiwan one of the most highly educated countries in the world with 68.5 per cent of Taiwanese high school students going on to attend university.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book | title=Patriarchy in East Asia: A Comparative Sociology of Gender | publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] | author=Sechiyama, Kaku | year=2013 | page=254 | isbn=978-9004230606}}</ref> Taiwan has a high percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree where 45 per cent of Taiwanese aged 25–64 hold a bachelor's degree or higher compared with the average of 33 per cent among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://chinapost.nownews.com/20160313-28397 | title=5 mil. Taiwanese hold degrees from higher education institutions | work=China Post | date=13 March 2016 | access-date=19 August 2019}}</ref>
On the other hand, the system has been criticised for placing excessive pressure on students while eschewing creativity and producing an excess supply of over-educated university graduates and a high graduate unemployment rate. With a large number of university graduates seeking a limited number of prestigious white collar jobs in an economic environment that is increasingly losing its competitive edge, this has led many graduates to be employed in lower-end jobs with salaries far beneath their expectations.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://news.asiaone.com/news/education/university-degrees-mindset-shift-needed |title=University degrees: Mindset shift needed |last=Lee |first=Pearl |publisher=The Straits Times |date=13 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto2" /> Taiwan's universities have also been under criticism for not being able to fully meet the requirements and demands of Taiwan's 21st-century fast-moving labour market, citing a skills mismatch among a large number of self-assessed, overeducated university graduates who don't fit the demands of the modern Taiwanese labour market.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://monitor.icef.com/2016/08/taiwans-higher-education-enrolment-starts-downward-slide/ |title=Taiwan's higher education enrolment starts a downward slide |date=16 August 2016 |website=ICEF Monitor}}</ref> The Taiwanese government has also received criticism for undermining the economy as it has been unable to produce enough jobs to meet the demands of numerous underemployed university graduates.<ref name="auto3" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24156168 |title=The draw of blue collar jobs in Taiwan |last=Sui |first=Cindy |date=23 September 2013}}</ref>
As the Taiwanese economy is largely science and technology based, the labour market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment. Although current Taiwanese law mandates only nine years of schooling, 95 per cent of junior high graduates go on to attend a senior vocational high school, university, junior college, trade school, or other higher education institution.<ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{cite book | title=Taiwan Country: Strategic Information and Developments | publisher=International Business Publications | year=2012 | page=25 | isbn=978-1438775708}}</ref>
Since [[Made in China 2025]] was announced in 2015, aggressive campaigns to recruit Taiwanese chip industry talent to support its mandates resulted in the loss of more than 3,000 chip engineers to mainland China,<ref name=Nikkei/> and raised concerns of a "[[brain drain]]" in Taiwan.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kyng |first1=James |title=Taiwan's brain drain: semiconductor engineers head to China |url=https://www.ft.com/content/6eab0c1c-167f-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385 |access-date=11 November 2020 |work=ft.com |publisher=The Financial Times |date=4 December 2020}}</ref><ref name=Nikkei>{{cite news |last1=Ihara |first1=Kensaku |title=Taiwan loses 3,000 chip engineers to 'Made in China 2025' |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/Taiwan-loses-3-000-chip-engineers-to-Made-in-China-2025 |access-date=11 November 2020 |work=nikkei.com |publisher=Nikkei |date=3 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Strong |first1=Matthew |title=Taiwan's 'Godfather of DRAM' leaves China |url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4021096 |access-date=11 November 2020 |work=taiwannews.com |date=1 October 2020}}</ref>
Many Taiwanese students attend [[cram schools#Taiwan|cram schools]], or ''buxiban'', to improve skills and knowledge on problem solving against exams of subjects like mathematics, nature science, history and many others. Courses are available for most popular subjects and include lectures, reviews, private tutorial sessions, and recitations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/news/200509/2005090201.html |title=Over 70% of Taiwanese parents send kids to English bushibans |publisher=Invest in Taiwan, Department of Investment Services |date=2 September 2005 |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080608050510/http://investintaiwan.nat.gov.tw/en/news/200509/2005090201.html |archive-date = 8 June 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=C. Smith|first=Douglas|title=Middle education in the Middle Kingdom|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1997|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NqJP5uE9LewC&pg=PA119|isbn=978-0-275-95641-7}}</ref>
{{As of|2020}}, the [[literacy rate]] in Taiwan was 99.03 per cent.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=zh:國人教育水準 |url=https://www.gender.ey.gov.tw/gecdb/Stat_Statistics_DetailData.aspx?sn=cC3K6vUAfeUlTCcfbr03CQ%3d%3d&d=m9ww9odNZAz2Rc5Ooj%2fwIQ%3d%3d |website=gender.ey.gov.tw |access-date=3 October 2021 |language=zh}}</ref>
==Demographics==
{{Main|Demographics of Taiwan}}
[[File:Taiwan population density map.svg|thumb|Population density map of Taiwan (residents per square kilometre)]]
Taiwan has a population of about 23.4 million,{{sfnp|Exec. Yuan|2014|p=36}} most of whom are on the island of Taiwan. The remainder live on the outlying islands of Penghu (101,758), Kinmen (127,723), and Matsu (12,506).<ref name="taiwan-popstat">{{cite web|url=http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/month/m1-01.xls |title=Number of Villages, Neighborhoods, Households and Resident Population |publisher=MOI Statistical Information Service |access-date=2 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329071215/http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/month/m1-01.xls |archive-date=29 March 2014 }}</ref>
===Largest cities and counties===
{{Main|List of cities in Taiwan}}
The figures below are the March 2019 estimates for the twenty most populous administrative divisions; a different ranking exists when considering the total [[List of metropolitan areas in Taiwan#Metropolitan areas in Taiwan|metropolitan area populations]] (in such rankings the [[Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area|Taipei-Keelung metro area]] is by far the largest agglomeration). The figures reflect the number of household registrations in each city, which may differ from the number of actual residents.
{{Largest cities of Taiwan}}
{{clear}}
===Ethnic groups===
{{Main|Taiwanese people|Han Taiwanese|Han Chinese|Taiwanese indigenous peoples}}
[[File:Formosan Distribution 01.png|thumb|upright=0.9|Original geographic distributions of Taiwanese indigenous peoples]]
The ROC government reports that over 95 per cent of the population is [[Han Chinese]], including descendants of those who arrived in large numbers starting in the 18th century, 2 percent indigenous Malayo-Polynesian peoples, and 2 percent new immigrants primarily from China and Southeast Asia.<ref name="TWG2020" /><ref name="cia-factbook" />
The Hoklo people are the largest ethnic group (70 per cent of the total population), whose Han ancestors migrated from the coastal southern Fujian region across the Taiwan Strait starting in the 17th century. The Hakka comprise about 15 per cent of the total population, and descend from Han migrants from eastern Guangdong.<ref>{{cite book | surname = Yan | given = Margaret Mian | title = Introduction to Chinese Dialectology | publisher = LINCOM Europa | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-3-89586-629-6 | page = 169 }}</ref>
The indigenous [[Taiwanese aborigines]] number about 533,600 and are divided into 16 groups.{{sfnp|Exec. Yuan|2014|p=49}} The [[Amis people|Ami]], [[Atayal people|Atayal]], [[Bunun people|Bunun]], [[Kanakanavu people|Kanakanavu]], [[Kavalan people|Kavalan]], [[Paiwan people|Paiwan]], [[Puyuma people|Puyuma]], [[Rukai people|Rukai]], [[Saisiyat people|Saisiyat]], [[Saaroa people|Saaroa]], [[Sakizaya people|Sakizaya]], [[Sediq people|Sediq]], [[Thao people|Thao]], [[Truku people|Truku]] and [[Tsou people|Tsou]] live mostly in the eastern half of the island, while the [[Yami people|Yami]] inhabit [[Orchid Island]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/month/m1-04.xls |title=Indigenous People |publisher=MOI Statistical Information Service |date=February 2012 |access-date=14 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Overview of Taiwan's Indigenous Groups |url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/indigenous/ |publisher=Government Information Office |location=Taipei |year=2006 |access-date=14 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120411063355/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/indigenous/ |archive-date=11 April 2012}}</ref>
===Languages===
[[File:Map of the most commonly used home language in Taiwan.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of the most commonly used home language in Taiwan where blue 'cmn' = "Mandarin", green 'nan' = "Hokkien"/"Min Nan", hot-pink 'hak' = "Hakka", burgundy 'map' = austronesian languages.]]
{{Main|Languages of Taiwan}}
[[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin]] is the primary language used in business and education, and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. [[Traditional Chinese]] is used as the writing system.<ref name="yb-languages">{{cite book |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2011 |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan) |chapter=Chapter 2: People and Language |chapter-url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/docs/ch02D.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514004814/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/docs/ch02D.pdf |archive-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> The Republic of China does not have any legally designated [[official language]], but [[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin]] plays the role of the [[defacto|de facto]] [[official language]].<ref name="推動雙語國家政策問題研析"/>
Since the [[May Fourth Movement]], [[written vernacular Chinese]] had replaced [[Classical Chinese]] and emerged as the mainstream [[Written vernacular Chinese|written Chinese]] in the Republic of China. But [[Classical Chinese]] continued to be widely used in the [[Government of the Republic of China]]. Most government documents in the [[Republic of China]] were written in [[Classical Chinese]] until reforms in the 1970s, in a reform movement spearheaded by President [[Yen Chia-kan]] to shift the written style to a more integrated [[vernacular Chinese]] and [[Classical Chinese]] style (文白合一行文).<ref>{{cite book|first=Feng-fu|last=Tsao|chapter=The language planning situation in Taiwan|pages=60–106|editor1-last=Baldauf|editor1-first=Richard B.|editor2-first=Robert B.|editor2-last=Kaplan|title=Language planning in Nepal, Taiwan, and Sweden|publisher=Multilingual Matters|year=2000|volume=115|isbn=978-1-85359-483-0}} pages 75–76.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cheong|first=Ching|title=Will Taiwan break away: the rise of Taiwanese nationalism|publisher=World Scientific|year=2001|pages=187|isbn=978-981-02-4486-6}}</ref> After January 1, 2005, the [[Executive Yuan]] also changed the long-standing official document writing habit from vertical writing style to horizontal writing style.
Today, pure [[Classical Chinese]] is occasionally used in formal or ceremonial occasions, religious or cultural rites in Taiwan. The ''[[National Anthem of the Republic of China]]'' ({{lang|zh-Hant-TW|中華民國國歌}}), for example, is in [[Classical Chinese]]. [[Taoist]] texts are still preserved in [[Classical Chinese]] from the time they were composed. [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] texts, or [[sutra]]s, are still preserved in [[Classical Chinese]] from the time they were composed or translated from [[Sanskrit]] sources. In practice there is a socially accepted continuum between vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese. Most official [[Government of the Republic of China|government]] documents, [[Law of Taiwan|legal]], [[Supreme Court of the Republic of China|courts rulings]] and [[Ministry of Justice (Taiwan)|judiciary]] documents use a combined [[vernacular Chinese]] and [[Classical Chinese]] style (文白合一行文).<ref>{{cite web |title=法律統一用語表-常見公文用語說明|url=http://oga.ncu.edu.tw/ncuoga/dispatch/doc/%E5%B8%B8%E8%A6%8B%E5%85%AC%E6%96%87%E7%94%A8%E8%AA%9E%E8%AA%AA%E6%98%8E1050106.pdf |access-date=2 June 2021 |language=Chinese}}</ref> For example, most official notices and formal letters are written with a number of stock Classical Chinese expressions (e.g. salutation, closing). Personal letters, on the other hand, are mostly written in vernacular, but with some Classical phrases, depending on the subject matter, the writer's level of education, etc.
As many legal documents are still written in [[Classical Chinese]], which is not easily understood by the general public, a group of Taiwanese had launched the ''Legal Vernacular Movement'' hoping to bring more [[Vernacular Chinese]] into the legal writings of the [[Republic of China]].<ref>{{cite web |title=《法律白話文運動》掀起一場法律革命|url=https://vita.tw/%E6%B3%95%E5%BE%8B%E7%99%BD%E8%A9%B1%E6%96%87%E9%81%8B%E5%8B%95-%E6%8E%80%E8%B5%B7%E4%B8%80%E5%A0%B4%E6%B3%95%E5%BE%8B%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD-1fa53d10d9da |access-date=9 July 2021 |language=Chinese}}</ref>
70 per cent of the population belong to the [[Hoklo]] ethnic group and speak [[Hokkien]] natively in addition to Mandarin. The [[Hakka]] group, comprising some 14–18 per cent of the population, speak [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]]. Although Mandarin is the language of instruction in schools and dominates television and radio, non-Mandarin [[varieties of Chinese|Chinese varieties]] have undergone a revival in public life in Taiwan, particularly since restrictions on their use were lifted in the 1990s.<ref name="yb-languages" />
[[Formosan languages]] are spoken primarily by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. They do not belong to the Chinese or Sino-Tibetan language family, but to the [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian language family]], and are written in [[Writing systems of Formosan languages|Latin alphabet]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2017/07/20/2003674932 |title=Official documents issued in Aboriginal languages |newspaper=Taipei Times |access-date=20 July 2017}}</ref> Their use among aboriginal minority groups has been in decline as usage of Mandarin has risen.<ref name="yb-languages" /> Of the 14 extant languages, five are considered [[moribund language|moribund]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Formosan Language Archive: Linguistic Analysis and Language Processing |last1=Zeitoun |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Yu |first2=Ching-Hua |journal=Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing |volume=10 |issue=2 |page=168 |url=http://aclclp.org.tw/clclp/v10n2/v10n2a2.pdf |access-date=4 August 2012}}</ref>
Taiwan is officially multilingual. A national language in Taiwan is legally defined as "a natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan and the Taiwan Sign Language".<ref name="natLangAct"/> As of 2019, policies on national languages are in early stages of implementation, with Hakka and indigenous languages designated as such.
===Religion===
{{Main|Religion in Taiwan}}
{{Pie chart
|thumb = left
|caption = Estimated religious composition in 2020<ref name="Pew religion stats">{{cite web |last1=Washington |first1=Suite 800 |last2=Inquiries |first2=DC 20036 USA202-419-4300 |title=Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2050 |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/2020/percent/all/ |website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=23 February 2019 |date=2 April 2015}}</ref>
|label1 = [[Chinese folk religion]] (including [[Confucianism]])
|value1 = 43.8
|color1 = Yellow
|label2 = [[Buddhism in Taiwan|Buddhists]]
|value2 = 21.2
|color2 = Crimson
|label3 = Others (including [[Taoism|Taoists]])
|value3 = 15.5
|color3 = Blue
|label4 = Unaffiliated
|value4 = 13.7
|color4 = Honeydew
|label5 = Christians
|value5 = 5.8
|color5 = DodgerBlue
|label6 = [[Islam in Taiwan|Muslims]]
|value6 = 1
|color6 = GreenYellow
}}
The Constitution of the Republic of China protects people's [[freedom of religion]] and the practices of belief.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Constitution of the Republic of China |at=Chapter II, Article 13 |quote=The people shall have freedom of religious belief}}</ref> [[Freedom of religion in Taiwan]] is strong and ranks high at 9.2 in 2018 according to [[world bank]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Freedom of religion, Scale | publisher = World Bank| year= 2018 | url = https://govdata360.worldbank.org/indicators/hd6a18526?country=TWN&indicator=41930&viz=line_chart&years=1975,2018 | access-date = 2 June 2021}}</ref>
In 2005, the census reported that the five largest religions were: [[Buddhism]], [[Taoism]], [[Yiguandao]], [[Protestantism]], and [[Roman Catholicism]].<ref name="religion">{{cite web | title = Taiwan Yearbook 2006 | publisher = Government of Information Office | year= 2006 | url = http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/22Religion.htm | access-date = 1 September 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070708213510/http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/22Religion.htm |archive-date = 8 July 2007}}</ref> According to [[Pew Research Center|Pew Research]], the religious composition of Taiwan in 2020<ref>{{cite web |title=Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2050 |url=https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/2020/percent/Asia-Pacific/ |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]] |access-date=19 May 2019 |date=2 April 2015}}</ref> is estimated to be 43.8 per cent [[Chinese folk religion|Folk religions]], 21.2 per cent [[Buddhism in Taiwan|Buddhist]], 15.5 Others (including [[Taoism]]), 13.7 per cent Unaffiliated, 5.8 per cent Christian and 1% Muslim. Taiwanese aborigines comprise a notable subgroup among professing Christians: "...over 64 per cent identify as Christian... Church buildings are the most obvious markers of Aboriginal villages, distinguishing them from Taiwanese or Hakka villages".<ref>Stainton, Michael (2002). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120515150705/http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/taiwan/presbyterians-and-aboriginal-revitalization-movement "Presbyterians and the Aboriginal Revitalization Movement in Taiwan"]. ''[[Cultural Survival Quarterly]]'' 26.2, 5 May 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2014.</ref> There has been a small [[Islam in Taiwan|Muslim]] community of [[Hui people]] in Taiwan since the 17th century.<ref>{{cite news |title=Islam in Taiwan: Lost in tradition |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/islam-taiwan-lost-tradition-2014123173558796270.html |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=31 December 2014}}</ref>
[[Confucianism]] is a philosophy that deals with secular moral ethics, and serves as the foundation of both [[Culture of China|Chinese]] and [[Culture of Taiwan|Taiwanese culture]]. The majority of [[Taiwanese people]] usually combine the secular moral teachings of Confucianism with whatever religions they are affiliated with.
{{As of|2019}}, there were 15,175 [[Place of worship|religious buildings]] in Taiwan, approximately one [[place of worship]] per 1,572 residents. 12,279 temples were dedicated to [[Taoism]] and [[Buddhism in Taiwan|Buddhism]]. There were 9,684 [[Taoism|Taoist]] Temples and 2,317 [[Buddhism in Taiwan|Buddhist]] Temples.<ref name="表23各宗教教務概況">{{cite web|title=表23各宗教教務概況|url=https://www.ey.gov.tw/File/71A8E0246065BE0|access-date=2021-06-02|language=zh}}</ref> In Taiwan’s 36,000 square kilometers of land, there are more than 33,000 places for religious (believers) to worship and gather. On average, there is one temple or church (church) or religious building for every square kilometer. The high density of place of worship is rare in the world, and it is the area with the highest density of religious buildings in the [[List of countries and territories where Chinese is an official language|Chinese-speaking world]]. Taiwan is also the most religious region in the [[List of countries and territories where Chinese is an official language|Chinese-speaking world]]. Even for [[Christianity]], there are 2,845 Churches.<ref name="表23各宗教教務概況"/>
A significant percentage of the population of Taiwan is non-religious. Taiwan's strong human rights protections, lack of state-sanctioned discrimination, and generally high regard for freedom of religion or belief earned it a joint #1 ranking in the 2018 [[Freedom of Thought Report]], alongside the Netherlands and Belgium.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/best-and-worst-countries-atheist-4310703-Oct2018/|title=These are the best and worst countries in the world to be an atheist|work=journal.ie|access-date=2 November 2018|date=28 October 2018}}</ref>
{{quotation|Taiwan is clearly an outlier in the top 3, all-clear countries. It is non-European, and demographically much more religious. But in its relatively open, democratic and tolerant society we have recorded no evidence of laws or social discrimination against members of the non-religious minority.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1ChqeM59-jyB5wE2_72d8XKcTmgyq3MOB|title=THE FREEDOM OF THOUGHT REPORT 2018|date=2018|access-date=15 October 2019|quote=Taiwan is clearly an outlier in the top 3, all-clear countries. It is non-European, and demographically much more religious. But in its relatively open, democratic and tolerant society we have recorded no evidence of laws or social discrimination against members of the non-religious minority.|page=14}}</ref>}}
===LGBT===
{{Main|LGBT rights in Taiwan|Same-sex marriage in Taiwan}}
On 24 May 2017, the [[Judicial Yuan#Constitutional Court|Constitutional Court]] ruled that then-current marriage laws had been violating the Constitution by denying Taiwanese same-sex couples the right to marry. The Court ruled that if the Legislative Yuan did not pass adequate amendments to Taiwanese marriage laws within two years, same-sex marriages would automatically become lawful in Taiwan.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wu|first1=J. R.|title=Taiwan court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, first in Asia|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-lgbt-marriage/taiwan-court-rules-in-favor-of-same-sex-marriage-first-in-asia-idUSKBN18K0UN|access-date=11 October 2017|work=Reuters|date=24 May 2017}}</ref> In a [[2018 Taiwanese referendum|referendum question in 2018]], however, voters expressed overwhelming opposition to same-sex marriage and supported the removal of content about homosexuality from primary school textbooks. According to the New York Times, the aforementioned referendum questions were subject to a "well-funded and highly organized campaign led by conservative Christians and other groups" involving the use of "misinformation, the bulk of which was spread online".<ref name="HortonNYT2018" /> Nevertheless, the vote against same-sex marriage does not affect the court ruling, and on 17 May 2019, Taiwan's parliament approved a bill legalising same-sex marriage, making it the first country in Asia to do so.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48305708|title=Taiwan gay marriage: Parliament legalises same-sex unions|date=17 May 2019|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517061353/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48305708|archive-date=17 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/17/asia/taiwan-same-sex-marriage-intl/index.html|title=Taiwan legalizes same-sex marriage in historic first for Asia|date=17 May 2019|publisher=CNN|access-date=17 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Steger |first=Isabella |title=In a first for Asia, Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage—with caveats |work=Quartz |date=May 17, 2019 |url=https://qz.com/1621783/taiwan-becomes-first-country-in-asia-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage/ |access-date=2021-05-31 }}</ref>
==Public health==
{{Main|Healthcare in Taiwan}}
[[File:National Taiwan University Hospital Taipei.jpg|thumb|[[National Taiwan University Hospital]]]]
The current [[healthcare system]] in Taiwan, known as National Health Insurance (NHI, {{lang-zh|全民健康保險}}), was instituted in 1995. NHI is a [[Single-payer health care|single-payer]] compulsory social insurance plan that centralizes the disbursement of healthcare funds. The system promises equal access to healthcare for all citizens, and the population coverage had reached 99 per cent by the end of 2004.<ref>Fanchiang, Cecilia.[http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/site/Tj/ct.asp?xItem=20439&CtNode=122 "New IC health insurance card expected to offer many benefits"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606010447/http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/site/Tj/ct.asp?xItem=20439&CtNode=122 |date=6 June 2008 }}, ''Taiwan Journal, 2 January 2004'' Accessed 28 March 2008</ref> NHI is mainly financed through premiums, which are based on the payroll tax, and is supplemented with out-of-pocket co-payments and direct government funding. Preventative health service, low-income families, veterans, children under three years old, and catastrophic diseases are exempt from co-payment. Low income households maintain 100 per cent premium coverage by the NHI and co-pays are reduced for disabled or certain elderly people.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}}
Early in the program, the payment system was predominantly [[fee-for-service]]. Most health providers operate in the private sector and form a competitive market on the health delivery side. However, many healthcare providers took advantage of the system by offering unnecessary services to a larger number of patients and then billing the government. In the face of increasing loss and the need for cost containment, NHI changed the payment system from fee-for-service to a global budget, a kind of [[prospective payment system]], in 2002.
The implementation of universal healthcare created fewer [[health disparities]] for lower-income citizens in Taiwan. According to a recently published survey, out of 3,360 patients surveyed at a randomly chosen hospital, 75.1 per cent of the patients said they are "very satisfied" with the hospital service; 20.5 per cent said they are "okay" with the service. Only 4.4 per cent of the patients said they are either "not satisfied" or "very not satisfied" with the service or care provided.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Taiwanese Hospital Public Satisfaction Poll |date=October 2004|publisher=Taiwan Department of Health |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921050255/http://www.hcquality.helthe.net/reports/showreports.php?id=2_1|url=http://www.hcquality.helthe.net/reports/showreports.php?id=2_1|archive-date=21 September 2009|language=zh}}</ref>
The Taiwanese disease control authority is the [[Taiwan Centers for Disease Control]] (CDC), and during the [[Severe acute respiratory syndrome|SARS]] outbreak in March 2003 there were 347 confirmed cases. During the outbreak the CDC and local governments set up monitoring stations throughout public transportation, recreational sites and other public areas. With full containment in July 2003, there has not been a case of SARS since.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Center for Disease Control |date=18 July 2006 |publisher=Taiwan CDC |url=https://www.cdc.gov.tw |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807030114/http://www.cdc.gov.tw/ |archive-date=7 August 2016}}</ref> Owing to the lessons from SARS, a National Health Command Center was established in 2004, which includes the [[Central Epidemic Command Center]] (CECC). The CECC has since played a central role in Taiwan's approach to epidemics, including the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan|COVID-19 pandemic]].
In 2019, the infant mortality rate was 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, with 20 physicians and 71 hospital beds per 10,000 people.<ref>{{cite web|date=17 July 2020|title=Statistics of Medical Care Institution's Status & Hospital Utilization 2019|url=https://www.mohw.gov.tw/cp-4932-54834-2.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/354.html|title=Infant mortality rate}}</ref> Life expectancy at birth in 2020 is 77.5 years and 83.9 years for males and females, respectively.<ref>{{cite web|date=12 August 2020|title=Taiwan|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/taiwan/}}</ref>
==Culture==
{{Main|Culture of Taiwan|Cultural history of Taiwan|Chinese Cultural Renaissance}}
{{See also|Taiwanese Wave}}
[[File:taiwan.nch.ntnu.apo-hsu.2005-10a.altonthompson.jpg|thumb|[[Apo Hsu]] and the [[National Taiwan Normal University|NTNU]] Symphony Orchestra onstage in the [[National Concert Hall (Taiwan)|National Concert Hall]]]] The cultures of Taiwan are a hybrid blend from various sources, incorporating elements of the majority [[Chinese culture|traditional Chinese culture]], aboriginal cultures, [[Culture of Japan|Japanese cultural influence]], traditional Confucianist beliefs, and increasingly, [[Western culture|Western values]].
During the [[Martial law in Taiwan|martial law period]] in which the Republic of China was officially [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]], the [[Kuomintang]] promoted an official [[Chinese culture|traditional Chinese culture]] over Taiwan in order to emphasize that the Republic of China represents the true orthodoxy to [[Chinese Culture]] (and therefore the "real and legitimate China") as opposed to [[People's Republic of China|Communist China]].<ref>{{cite book |authors=陳鐵健、黃鐵炫 |title=《蔣介石與中國文化》 |location=Hong Kong |publisher=中華書局 |year=1992 |page=122 |language=Chinese }}</ref> The government launched what's known as the [[Chinese Cultural Renaissance]] movement in Taiwan in opposition to the cultural destructions caused by the [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communist Party]] during the [[Cultural Revolution]]. The General Assembly of Chinese Culture (中華文化總會) was established as a movement promotion council to help promote Chinese Culture in Taiwan and overseas. It was [[Kuomintang]]'s first structured plan for cultural development on Taiwan. [[Chiang Kai Shek|Chiang]] himself was the head of the General Assembly of Chinese Culture. Subsequent [[President of the Republic of China]] also became the head of this General Assembly. The [[Chinese Cultural Renaissance]] movement in Taiwan coupled with Chinese Cultural education in Taiwan had helped to elevate the cultural refinement, mannerism and politeness of many Taiwanese, in contrast to the cultural destruction (uncultured behaviour) of many mainland Chinese due to the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|title=5 Reasons Why Chinese Tourists Are So Rude|url=https://www.jeraldinephneah.com/5-reasons-why-chinese-tourists-are-so-rude|access-date=4 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308042750/https://www.jeraldinephneah.com/5-reasons-why-chinese-tourists-are-so-rude|archive-date=8 March 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> This has also led to [[Chinese Culture]] (especially its soft culture) being better preserved in Taiwan than in [[mainland China]]. An example of this preservation is the continued use of [[Traditional Chinese]]. The influence of [[Confucianism]] can be found in the behaviour of [[Taiwanese people]], known for their friendliness and politeness.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-radio-and-tv-15153707|access-date=2021-06-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127064800/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-radio-and-tv-15153707|archive-date=27 January 2021|title=Archived copy|url-status=live}}</ref>
The uplifting of [[Martial law in Taiwan|martial law]] ushered a period of [[democratization]] whereby [[Freedom of Speech|Freedom of Speech and Expression]] led to a flourishing [[Taiwanese literature]] and [[Mass media in Taiwan]].
Reflecting the continuing controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan, politics continues to play a role in the conception and development of a Taiwanese cultural identity, especially in its relationship to Chinese culture.<ref>{{harvnb|Yip|2004|pp=230–248}}; {{harvnb|Makeham|2005|pp=2–8}}; {{harvnb|Chang|2005|p=224}}</ref> In recent years, the concept of Taiwanese [[multiculturalism]] has been proposed as a relatively apolitical alternative view, which has allowed for the inclusion of mainlanders and other minority groups into the continuing re-definition of Taiwanese culture as collectively held systems of meaning and customary patterns of thought and behaviour shared by the people of Taiwan.<ref>{{harvnb|Hsiau|2005|pp=125–129}}; {{harvnb|Winckler|1994|pp=23–41}}</ref> [[Identity politics]], along with the over one hundred years of political separation from mainland China, has led to distinct traditions in many areas, including [[Taiwanese cuisine|cuisine]] and [[Music of Taiwan|music]].
===Arts===
{{Main|Music of Taiwan|Taiwanese art}}
{{Recentism|section|date=June 2021}}
[[File:2008TIBE Day1 Hall1 Opening TouhWang.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Taiwanese writer, literary critic and politician [[Wang Tuoh]]]]
Acclaimed classical musicians include violinist [[Cho-Liang Lin]], pianist [[Ching-Yun Hu]], and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society artist director [[Wu Han (pianist)|Wu Han]]. Other musicians include [[Jay Chou]] and groups such as [[Mayday (Taiwanese band)|Mayday]] and [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] band [[Chthonic (band)|Chthonic]], led by singer [[Freddy Lim]], which has been referred to as the "[[Black Sabbath]] of Asia".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hunt|first1=Katie|title=Meet Freddy Lim, the death metal star running for political office in Taiwan|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/asia/taiwan-rock-star-politician-freddy-lim/|access-date=17 January 2016|publisher=CNN.com|date=13 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=McVeigh|first1=Tracy|title=Taiwan's heavy metal star rallies fans to run for parliament on anti-China platform|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/taiwan-heavy-metal-star-stands-for-election|access-date=1 January 2016|work=The Observer|via=The Guardian|date=26 December 2015}}</ref>
[[Cinema of Taiwan|Taiwanese films]] have won various international awards at film festivals around the world. [[Ang Lee]], a Taiwanese director, has directed critically acclaimed films such as: ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]''; ''[[Eat Drink Man Woman]]''; ''[[Sense and Sensibility (film)|Sense and Sensibility]]''; ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]''; ''[[Life of Pi (film)|Life of Pi]]''; and ''[[Lust, Caution]]''. Other famous Taiwanese directors include [[Tsai Ming-liang]], [[Edward Yang]], and [[Hou Hsiao-hsien]]. Taiwan has hosted the [[Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards]] since 1962.
Taiwan hosts the [[National Palace Museum]], which houses more than 650,000 pieces of Chinese bronze, jade, calligraphy, painting, and porcelain and is considered one of the greatest collections of Chinese art and objects in the world.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557357_9/Museum.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028163715/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557357_9/Museum.html|title=Museum|archive-date=28 October 2009|work=archive.org}}</ref> The KMT moved this collection from the [[Forbidden City]] in Beijing in 1933 and part of the collection was eventually transported to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. The collection, estimated to be one-tenth of China's cultural treasures, is so extensive that only 1 per cent is on display at any time. The PRC had said that the collection was stolen and has called for its return, but the ROC has long defended its control of the collection as a necessary act to protect the pieces from destruction, especially during the [[Cultural Revolution]]. Relations regarding this treasure have since warmed, with the National Palace Museum loaning artwork to various museums in the PRC in 2010.<ref>{{cite news
| title = Taiwan to loan art to China amid warming ties
| url = https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLODWs9HP8ywcjE_aaS5GPESiBvg
| agency = Agence France-Presse
| date = 22 September 2010
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110504041925/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLODWs9HP8ywcjE_aaS5GPESiBvg
| url-status=dead
| archive-date = 4 May 2011
}}</ref>
===Popular culture===
[[Karaoke]], drawn from contemporary Japanese culture, is extremely popular in Taiwan, where it is known as KTV. KTV businesses operate in a hotel-like style, renting out small rooms and ballrooms according to the number of guests in a group. Many KTV establishments partner with restaurants and buffets to form all-encompassing and elaborate evening affairs for families, friends, or businessmen. Tour busses that travel around Taiwan have several TVs, primarily for singing karaoke. The entertainment counterpart of a KTV is [[MTV Mandarin#Operating channels|MTV Taiwan]], particularly in urban areas. There, DVD movies can be played in a private theatre room. However, MTV, more so than KTV, has a growing reputation for being a place that young couples will go to be alone and intimate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reachtoteachrecruiting.com/about-reach-to-teach/monthly-events-html/ktv-in-taiwan-karoake-in-taiwan/|access-date=2021-04-05|website=www.reachtoteachrecruiting.com|title=KTV in Taiwan (Karoake in Taiwan)}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}
Taiwan has a high density of 24-hour convenience stores, which, in addition to the usual services, provide services on behalf of financial institutions or government agencies, such as collection of parking fees, utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments.<ref>{{cite journal|author=American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei |author-link=American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei |title=Convenience Stores Aim at Differentiation |journal=Taiwan Business Topics |volume=34 |issue=11 |url=http://www.amcham.com.tw/publication_topics_view.php?volume=34&vol_num=11&topics_id=558 |format=– <sup>[https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=intitle%3AConvenience+Stores+Aim+at+Differentiation&as_publication=Taiwan+Business+TOPICS&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]</sup> |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516161020/http://www.amcham.com.tw/publication_topics_view.php?volume=34&vol_num=11&topics_id=558 |archive-date=16 May 2008 }}</ref> They also provide a service for mailing packages. Chains such as [[FamilyMart]] provide clothing laundry services,<ref>{{cite web|last=News|first=Taiwan|title=FamilyMart rolls out laundry service in Taiwan {{!}} Taiwan News {{!}} 2019/01/24|url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3624427|access-date=2021-04-05|website=Taiwan News|date=24 January 2019}}</ref> and it is possible to purchase or receive tickets for [[Taiwan Railways Administration|TRA]] and THSR tickets at convenience stores, specifically [[7-Eleven]], FamilyMart, [[Hi-Life (convenience store)|Hi-Life]] and [[OK (convenience store)|OK]].<ref>{{cite web|date=2011-12-05|title=TRA tickets collectable at stores - Taipei Times|url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/12/05/2003519985|access-date=2021-04-05|website=www.taipeitimes.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=www.kyart.com.tw|title=台灣高鐵 Taiwan High Speed Rail|url=https://en.thsrc.com.tw/ArticleContent/30125956-5176-4d8c-af61-f1984f2133a4|access-date=2021-04-05|website=en.thsrc.com.tw|language=en}}</ref>
Taiwanese culture has also influenced other cultures. [[Bubble tea]] has now become a global phenomenon with its popularity spreading across the globe.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wong |first1=Maggie Hiufu |title=The rise of bubble tea, one of Taiwan's most beloved beverages |url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/taiwan-bubble-tea-origins/index.html |access-date=29 July 2020 |agency=CNN |publisher=Cable News Network |date=29 April 2020}}</ref>
===Sports===
{{Main|Sports in Taiwan}}
[[File:2011 Women's British Open - Tseng Yani (7) cropped.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Yani Tseng]] with the 2011 Women's British Open trophy]]
[[File:Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2018 - Quarter Final - Tai Tzu-ying vs Sung Shuo Yun 01.jpg|upright|thumb|Tai Tzu-ying, the current world No.1 in [[Badminton World Federation|BWF]] at the [[2018 Chinese Taipei Open]]]]
[[Baseball]] is Taiwan's [[national sport]] and is a popular spectator sport. The Taiwanese [[Chinese Taipei national baseball team|men's baseball team]] and [[Chinese Taipei women's national baseball team|women's baseball team]] are world No.2 in the [[WBSC Rankings]] as of June 2021. There have been sixteen [[List of Major League Baseball players from Taiwan|Taiwanese Major League Baseball players]] in the United States as of the [[2020 Major League Baseball season|2020 MLB Season]], including former pitchers [[Chien-Ming Wang]] and [[Wei-Yin Chen]]. The [[Chinese Professional Baseball League]] in Taiwan was established in 1989<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316075320/http://www.cpbl.com.tw/html/english/cpbl.asp|url=http://www.cpbl.com.tw/html/english/cpbl.asp|archive-date=16 March 2009 |title=Intro of CPBL |publisher=Cpbl.com.tw |access-date=3 December 2014}}</ref> and eventually absorbed the competing [[Taiwan Major League]] in 2003. {{As of|2019}}, the CPBL has four teams, with average attendance over 5,826 per game.<ref>{{cite web |title=About 關於中職 |url=http://www.cpbl.com.tw/footer/fans.html |website=The Official Site of CPBL |publisher=Chinese Professional Baseball League |access-date=2 January 2021}}</ref>
Besides baseball, [[basketball]] is Taiwan's other major sport.<ref>{{cite news | first = Audrey | last = Wang | title = A Passion for Hoops | date = 1 June 2008 | work = The Taiwan Review | url = http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=43967&CtNode=128 | access-date = 8 April 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120215062917/http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=43967&CtNode=128 | archive-date = 15 February 2012 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> The [[P. League+]] was established in September 2020 as Taiwan's [[professional basketball]] [[sports league|league]] and consists of four teams.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yen |first1=William |title=P.LEAGUE+ to boost domestic tourism, demonstrate virus prevention |url=https://focustaiwan.tw/sports/202011110025 |access-date=31 December 2020 |publisher=Focus Taiwan |date=11 November 2020}}</ref> A [[semi-professional sports|semi-professional]] [[Super Basketball League]] (SBL) has also been in play since 2003.<ref>{{cite news |title=ASEAN Basketball League to tip off with two teams from Taiwan |url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3807087 |access-date=31 December 2020 |agency=Central News Agency |publisher=Taiwan News |date=31 October 2019}}</ref> Two other teams from Taiwan compete in the [[ASEAN Basketball League]], a professional men's basketball league in [[East Asia|East]] and [[Southeast Asia]].
Taiwan participates in international sporting organizations and events under the name of "Chinese Taipei" due to its political status. In 2009, Taiwan hosted two international sporting events on the island. The [[World Games 2009]] were held in Kaohsiung between 16 and 26 July 2009. Taipei hosted the [[21st Summer Deaflympics]] in September of the same year. Furthermore, Taipei hosted the Summer [[Universiade]] in 2017.<ref>{{cite news | first = Christie | last = Chen | title = UNIVERSIADE: Foreign athletes praise Taipei's efforts as host city | date = 30 August 2017 |work=Focus Taiwan | url = http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aftr/201708300026.aspx | access-date = 25 May 2018}}</ref> In the near future, Taipei and New Taipei City will co-host the [[2025 World Masters Games]], as governed by the [[International Masters Games Association]] (IMGA).<ref>{{cite web |title=Mayors sign hosting deal for World Masters Games |url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/12/12/2003748579 |website=The Taipei Times |date=12 December 2020 |publisher=The Taipei Times |access-date=30 December 2020}}</ref>
[[Taekwondo]] has become a mature and successful sport in Taiwan in recent years. In the 2004 Olympics, [[Chen Shih-hsin]] and [[Chu Mu-yen]] won the first two gold medals in the women's flyweight event and the men's flyweight event, respectively. Subsequent taekwondo competitors such as [[Yang Shu-chun]] have strengthened Taiwan's taekwondo culture.
Taiwan has a long history of strong international presence in [[table tennis]]. [[Chen Pao-pei]] was a gold medalist in the women's singles at the [[Asian Table Tennis Championships]] in 1953 and gold medalist with [[Chiang Tsai-yun]] in the 1957 women's doubles and women's team events. [[Lee Kuo-ting]] won the men's singles at the 1958 Asian Table Tennis Championships. More recently, [[Chen Chien-an]] won the 2008 [[World Junior Table Tennis Championships]] in singles and paired with [[Chuang Chih-yuan]] to win the men's doubles in 2013 at the [[2013 World Table Tennis Championships|52nd World Table Tennis Championships]]. Playing for Taiwan, [[Chen Jing (table tennis)|Chen Jing]] won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympic Games and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. 17-year-old [[Lin Yun-ju|Lin Yun-Ju]] upset both reigning world champion [[Ma Long]] and world ranked No. 3 [[Fan Zhendong]] to win the 2019 men's singles in the T2 Diamond Series in Malaysia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/05/21/2003562781|title=Taiwan scores first table tennis gold in Paris win – Taipei Times|website=Taipei Times|date=21 May 2013|access-date=18 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.incheon2014ag.org/Sports/Biographies/Athletes_Profile/?ParticCode=5107814&lang=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082405/http://www.incheon2014ag.org/Sports/Biographies/Athletes_Profile/?ParticCode=5107814&lang=en|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 October 2014|title=Athletes_Profile {{!}} Biographies {{!}} Sports|date=6 October 2014|access-date=18 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olympiandatabase.com/index.php?id=150315&L=1|title=Taiwanese Medals in Table Tennis in the Olympic Games|website=olympiandatabase.com|access-date=18 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ittf.com/2019/07/21/t2-diamond-series-match-day-4/|title=T2 Diamond Series: Match Day 4|date=21 July 2019|website=International Table Tennis Federation|access-date=21 July 2019}}</ref>
In [[Tennis]], [[Hsieh Su-wei]] is the country's most successful player, having been ranked inside the top 25 in singles in the [[WTA rankings]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=Tony |title=Interview: Tennis player Hsieh Su-wei has year to remember |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2012/12/07/2003549552/1 |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=Taipei Times |date=7 December 2012}}</ref> She became joint No. 1 in doubles with her partner [[Peng Shuai]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hsieh & Peng: Co-Doubles No.1s |url=https://www.wtatennis.com/news/hsieh-peng-co-doubles-no1s |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=WTA |date=10 May 2014}}</ref> The sisters [[Latisha Chan|Chan Yung-jan]] (Latisha Chan) and [[Chan Hao-ching]] are doubles specialists. They won their 13th WTA tournament together at the [[2019 Eastbourne International]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Chan Sisters Triumph at Eastbourne |url=http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aeas/201906300011.aspx |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=Focus Taiwan |date=30 June 2019}}</ref> the second-highest number of wins for a pair of sisters after the [[Williams sisters]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Livaudais |first1=Stephanie |title='Playing with your sibling is not that easy': How the Chans found common ground |url=https://www.wtatennis.com/news/%E2%80%98playing-your-sibling-not-easy%E2%80%99-how-chans-found-common-ground |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=WTA |date=14 March 2019}}</ref> Latisha Chan became joint No. 1 with partner [[Martina Hingis]] in 2017.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chan and Hingis secure year-end World No.1 doubles ranking |url=https://www.wtatennis.com/news/chan-and-hingis-secure-year-end-world-no1-doubles-ranking |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=WTA |date=27 October 2017}}</ref> The most successful men's player was [[Lu Yen-hsun]], who reached No. 33 in the [[ATP rankings]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Meiseles |first1=Josh |title=Meet The #NextGenATP on the Rise in Chinese Taipei |url=https://www.atptour.com/en/news/chinese-taipei-2019-challenger-feature-tseng-jung-wu |access-date=16 September 2019 |work=ATP Tour |date=19 April 2019}}</ref>
Taiwan is also a major competitor in [[korfball]], earning third place four times at the [[IKF World Korfball Championship|World Championship]] (in [[1991 Korfball World Championship|1991]], [[2011 IKF World Korfball Championship|2011]], [[2015 IKF World Korfball Championship|2015]], and [[2019 IKF World Korfball Championship|2019]]), and hosting and taking second place at the [[IKF U23 World Championship|U23 World Championship]] in 2008<ref>{{cite news|title=Netherlands Retains World Youth Korfball Champion; Taiwan is on the Way to the World. |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/08/idUS82890+08-Nov-2008+BW20081108 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203071126/https://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/08/idUS82890%2B08-Nov-2008%2BBW20081108 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 February 2012 |access-date=14 June 2011 |agency=Reuters Newswire |date=8 November 2008 }}</ref> (as well as taking third in 2012 and second in 2016). Taiwan also took silver at the [[2017 World Games]] and bronze in [[1997 World Games|1997]], [[2001 World Games|2001]], and [[2013 World Games|2013]] and at the [[2009 World Games|2009 games]] held in [[Kaohsiung]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Hazeldine|first=Richard|title=Jujitsu, korfball put Taiwan back on winning track|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/07/22/2003449286|access-date=14 June 2011|newspaper=Taipei Times|date=22 July 2009}}</ref> Taiwan is also set to host the [[2023 IKF World Korfball Championship]].
[[Yani Tseng]] is the most famous Taiwanese [[professional golfer]] currently playing on the US-based [[LPGA Tour]]. She is the youngest player ever, male or female, to win five [[Women's major golf championships|major championships]] and was ranked number 1 in the [[Women's World Golf Rankings]] for 109 consecutive weeks from 2011 to 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title=At Only 22, Tseng Wins Fifth Major|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/sports/golf/2011-womens-british-open-yani-tseng-wins-fifth-major.html|date=1 August 2011|agency=Associated Press|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Victorious Tseng takes No. 1 ranking|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/02/14/2003495832|date=14 February 2011|agency=Agence France-Presse|work=Taipei Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9063564/stacy-lewis-wins-lpga-founders-cup-takes-world-no-1 |title=Stacy Lewis wins, now No. 1 in world |agency=Associated Press |date=17 March 2013 |publisher=ESPN |access-date=21 March 2013}}</ref>
Taiwan's strength in [[badminton]] is demonstrated by the current world No. 1 ranking female player, [[Tai Tzu-ying]], and the world No.2 ranking male player [[Chou Tien-chen]] in the [[BWF World Tour]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Goh |first1=ZK |title=Meet Tai Tzu-ying, Chinese Taipei's Badminton Star |url=https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/features/detail/tai-tzu-ying-chinese-taipei-badminton-star/ |website=Who is Tai Tzu-ying |publisher=Olympic Channel Services S.L. |access-date=29 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=BWF World Rankings |url=https://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/ |website=Rankings |publisher=Badminton World Federation |access-date=29 July 2020}}</ref>
===Calendar===
{{Main|Minguo calendar}}
{{See also|Chinese calendar|Public holidays in Taiwan}}
The standard [[Gregorian calendar]] is used for most purposes in Taiwan. The year is often denoted by the Minguo [[Calendar era|era system]] which starts in 1912, the year the ROC was founded. 2021 is year 110 Minguo (民國110年). The [[Calendar date#Gregorian, year–month–day (YMD)|East Asian date format]] is used in Chinese.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chinese (Traditional Han, Taiwan) (zh-Hant-TW) |url=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSS28S_8.1.0/XFDL/i_xfdl_r_formats_zh_Hant_TW.html |website=IBM Knowledge Center |access-date=8 May 2019}}</ref>
Prior to standardisation in 1929, the [[Chinese calendar]] was officially used. It is a [[Lunisolar calendar|Lunisolar calendar system]] which remains in use today for traditional festivals such as the [[Chinese New Year|Lunar New Year]], the [[Lantern Festival]], and the [[Dragon Boat Festival]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/index_e.htm |title=Holidays and Festivals in Taiwan |publisher=Government Information Office, ROC |access-date=28 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009021955/http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/index_e.htm |archive-date=9 October 2009}}</ref>
==See also==
{{portal |Taiwan|Islands}}
* [[Index of Taiwan-related articles]]
* [[Republic of Formosa]]
* [[Outline of Taiwan]]{{-}}
==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
{{Notelist-lr}}
=== Words in native languages ===
{{Notelist-ur}}
== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|35em}}
=== Works cited===
{{refbegin|35em}}
* {{cite book |surname=Andrade |given=Tonio |date=2008 |title=How Taiwan Became Chinese |url=http://www.gutenberg-e.org/andrade/ |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York, NY; Chichester, West Sussex |version=Gutenberg-e E-book |isbn=978-0-231-50368-6}}
* {{cite journal
| surname1=Bird | given1=Michael I
| surname2=Hope | given2=Geoffrey
| surname3=Taylor | given3=David
| year=2004
| title=Populating PEP II: the dispersal of humans and agriculture through Austral-Asia and Oceania
| url=http://palaeoworks.anu.edu.au/pubs/Birdetal04.pdf
| journal=Quaternary International | volume=118–119 | pages=145–163
| doi=10.1016/s1040-6182(03)00135-6
| access-date=31 March 2007
| bibcode=2004QuInt.118..145B
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212013511/http://palaeoworks.anu.edu.au/pubs/Birdetal04.pdf
| archive-date=12 February 2014
| url-status=dead
}}
* {{cite book |surname=Chang |given=Maukuei |chapter=The Movement to Indigenize to Social Sciences in Taiwan: Origin and Predicaments |title=Cultural, Ethnic, and Political Nationalism in Contemporary Taiwan: Bentuhua |date=2005 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-7020-6 |location=New York |editor1-surname=Makeham |editor1-given=John |editor2-surname=Hsiau |editor2-given=A-chin }}
* {{cite book |surname=Davidson |given=James W. |author-link=James W. Davidson |url=https://archive.org/details/islandofformosap00davi |title=The Island of Formosa, Past and Present : history, people, resources, and commercial prospects : tea, camphor, sugar, gold, coal, sulphur, economical plants, and other productions |publisher=Macmillan |year=1903 |location=London and New York |ol=6931635M }}
* {{cite web |author=DoIT |title=2008 White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology |year=2008 |publisher=Department of Industrial Technology |url=http://doit.moea.gov.tw/itech/data/2008_1_1_EN.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429095322/http://doit.moea.gov.tw/itech/data/2008_1_1_EN.pdf |archive-date=29 April 2011 }}
* {{cite book |author=Exec. Yuan |title=The Republic of China Yearbook 2014 |year=2014 |isbn=978-986-04-2302-0 |publisher=Executive Yuan, R.O.C. |url=http://www.ey.gov.tw/Upload/UserFiles/YB%202014%20all%20100dpi.pdf }}
* {{Cite book |surname=Fenby |given=Jonathan |title=The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850–2009 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7139-9832-0}}
* {{Cite book |surname=Fung |given=Edmund S. K. |title=In search of Chinese democracy: civil opposition in Nationalist China, 1929–1949 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-77124-5 |series=Cambridge modern China series}}
* {{cite journal |surname1=Hill |given1=Catherine |surname2=Soares |given2=Pedro |surname3=Mormina |given3=Maru |surname4=Macaulay |given4=Vincent |surname5=Clarke |given5=Dougie |surname6=Blumbach |given6=Petya B. |surname7=Vizuete-Forster |given7=Matthieu |surname8=Forster |given8=Peter |surname9=Bulbeck |given9=David |surname10=Oppenheimer |given10=Stephen |surname11=Richards |given11=Martin |date=January 2007 |title=A Mitochondrial Stratigraphy for Island Southeast Asia |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=29–43 |doi=10.1086/510412 |pmc=1876738 |pmid=17160892 }}
* {{cite book |surname=Hsiau |given=A-Chin |chapter=The Indigenization of Taiwanese Literature: Historical Narrative, Strategic Essentialism, and State Violence |title=Cultural, Ethnic, and Political Nationalism in Contemporary Taiwan: Bentuhua |date=2005 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-7020-6 |location=New York |editor1-surname=Makeham |editor1-given=John |editor2-surname=Hsiau |editor2-given=A-chin }}
* {{cite book |surname=Jiao |given=Tianlong |title=The Neolithic of southeast China: cultural transformation and regional interaction on the coast |publisher=Cambria Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-934043-16-5 }}
* {{cite book |surname=Makeham |given=John |chapter=Indigenization Discourse in Taiwanese Confucian Revivalism |title=Cultural, Ethnic, and Political Nationalism in Contemporary Taiwan: Bentuhua |date=2005 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-7020-6 |location=New York |editor1-surname=Makeham |editor1-given=John |editor2-surname=Hsiau |editor2-given=A-chin }}
* {{Cite journal |surname1=Makinen |given1=Gail E. |surname2=Woodward |given2=G. Thomas |year=1989 |title=The Taiwanese hyperinflation and stabilization of 1945–1952 |journal=Journal of Money, Credit and Banking |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=90–105 | doi=10.2307/1992580 |jstor=1992580 }}
* {{cite journal |surname=Thompson |given=Lawrence G. |title=The earliest eyewitness accounts of the Formosan aborigines |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=23 |pages=163–204 |year=1964 |jstor=40726116 |doi=10.1080/02549948.1964.11731044 }}
* {{cite book |surname=Valentijn |given=François |author-link=François Valentijn |chapter=History of the Dutch Trade |pages=25–75 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/formosaunderdut01campgoog#page/n41/mode/1up |title=Formosa under the Dutch: described from contemporary records, with explanatory notes and a bibliography of the island |publisher=Kegan Paul |year=1903 |editor-surname=Campbell |editor-given=William |location=London |isbn=9789576380839 |oclc=644323041 |orig-year=First published 1724 in ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën'' |editor-link=William Campbell (missionary) }}
* {{cite book |surname=Wills |given=John E., Jr. |chapter=The Seventeenth-century Transformation: Taiwan under the Dutch and the Cheng Regime |pages=84–106 |title=Taiwan: A New History |editor-given=Murray A. |editor-surname=Rubinstein |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=2006 |edition=expanded |isbn=978-0-7656-1495-7 }}
* {{cite conference |surname=Winckler |given=Edwin |year=1994 |title=Cultural Policy in Postwar Taiwan |editor1-surname=Harrell |editor1-given=Stevan |editor2-surname=Huang |editor2-given=Chun-chieh |conference=Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan ( 10–14 April 1991; Seattle) |publisher=Westview Press |place=Boulder, Colo. |isbn=978-0-8133-8632-4 }}
* {{cite book |title=Envisioning Taiwan: Fiction, Cinema and the Nation in the Cultural Imaginary |surname=Yip |given=June |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8223-3357-9 |place=Durham, N.C. and London }}
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/introduction.stm|work=BBC News|title=Taiwan Flashpoint|year=2005 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Bush|first=R.|author2=O'Hanlon, M.|title=A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America|publisher=Wiley|year=2007|isbn=978-0-471-98677-5|url=https://archive.org/details/warlikenoothertr0000bush |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Bush|first=R.|title=Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8157-1290-9 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Carpenter|first=T.|title=America's Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2006|isbn=978-1-4039-6841-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/americascomingwa00carp |ref=none }}
* {{cite book|last1=Clark|first1=Cal|last2=Tan|first2=Alexander C.|title=Taiwan's Political Economy: Meeting Challenges, Pursuing Progress|year=2012|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-58826-806-8 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Cole|first=B.|title=Taiwan's Security: History and Prospects|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-36581-9 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Copper|first=J.|title=Playing with Fire: The Looming War with China over Taiwan|publisher=Praeger Security International General Interest|year=2006|isbn=978-0-275-98888-3 |ref=none }}
* Copper, John F. ed. ''Historical dictionary of Taiwan'' (1993) [https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00cop_ehx online]
* {{cite web|author=Federation of American Scientists|title=Chinese Nuclear Forces and US Nuclear War Planning|year=2006|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/china/Book2006.pdf|display-authors=etal |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Feuerwerker|first=Albert|title=The Chinese Economy, 1912–1949|publisher=Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press|year=1968 |ref=none }}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Fravel | first1 = M. Taylor | year = 2002 | title = Towards Civilian Supremacy: Civil-military Relations in Taiwan's Democratization | journal = [[Armed Forces & Society]] | volume = 29 | issue = 1| pages = 57–84 | doi = 10.1177/0095327x0202900104 | s2cid = 146212666 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Gill|first=B.|title=Rising Star: China's New Security Diplomacy|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8157-3146-7 |ref=none }}
* {{cite journal |surname=Selby |given=Burnard |title=Formosa: The Historical Background | journal=History Today |date=Mar 1955 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=186–194 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Shirk|first=S.|title=China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-530609-5|url=https://archive.org/details/chinafragilesupe00shir |ref=none }}
* Taeuber, Irene B. "Population Growth in a Chinese Microcosm: Taiwan." ''Population Index'' 27#2 (1961), pp. 101–126 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2731434 online]
* {{Cite book|last=Tsang|first=S.|title=If China Attacks Taiwan: Military Strategy, Politics and Economics|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-40785-4 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book|last=Tucker|first=N.B.|title=Dangerous Strait: the US-Taiwan-China Crisis|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-231-13564-1 |ref=none }}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
{{Sister project links|Republic of China|voy=Taiwan}}
{{Library resources box}}
===Overviews and data===
* [https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/taiwan/ Taiwan]. ''[[The World Factbook]]''. [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120828223012/http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/taiwan.htm Taiwan] from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1285915.stm Taiwan country profile] [[BBC News]]
* [https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35855.htm Background Note: Taiwan] US Department of State
* [http://www.taiwandc.org/history.htm Taiwan's 400 years of history] New Taiwan, Ilha Formosa
* [http://www.ifs.du.edu/ifs/frm_CountryProfile.aspx?Country=TW Key Development Forecasts for Taiwan] from [[International Futures]]
* [http://www.oecd.org/countries/chinesetaipei/ Chinese Taipei] [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|OECD]]
* {{wikiatlas|Taiwan}}
===Government agencies===
* [http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/ Office of the Government]
* [http://english.president.gov.tw/ Office of the President]
* [http://english.ey.gov.tw/ Executive Yuan]
* [http://www.judicial.gov.tw/en/ Judicial Yuan]
* [http://www.cy.gov.tw/mp21.htm Control Yuan]
* [https://www.exam.gov.tw/mp.asp?mp=5 Examination Yuan]
* [http://www.mofa.gov.tw/en/default.html Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
* [https://www.taiwanembassy.org/ Republic of China (Taiwan) Embassies and Missions Abroad]
* [http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/ Taiwan, The Heart of Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223063050/http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/ |date=23 December 2016 }}, Tourism Bureau, Republic of China (Taiwan)
{{Taiwan topics}}
{{Navboxes
|list =
{{Countries of Asia}}
{{Countries and territories of Southeast Asia}}
{{East Asian topics}}
{{States with limited recognition}}
{{Major non-NATO ally}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Taiwan| ]]<!-- Please leave the empty space as standard -->
[[Category:Republic of China| ]]<!-- Please leave the empty space as standard -->
[[Category:1912 establishments in China]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Island countries]]
[[Category:Northeast Asian countries]]
[[Category:Chinese-speaking countries and territories]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1912]]
[[Category:Taiwan placenames originating from Formosan languages]]
[[Category:Unrecognized or largely unrecognized states]]
[[Category:Republics]]
[[Category:Former Japanese colonies]]
'''Taiwan''',{{efn native lang|tw|name=word2|t=臺灣 or 台灣|p=Táiwān|m=Tâi-uân|s=Tǒi-vǎn|a=Taywan|pw=Taiwan}}, officially the '''Republic of China''' ('''ROC'''),{{efn native lang|tw|name=word1|t=中華民國|p=Zhōnghuá Mínguó|m=Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok|s=Chûng-fà Mìn-koet}}{{Efn|see [[#Name|etymology]] below|name=|group=}} is a country in [[East Asia]].<ref name="fell">{{cite book|last1=Fell|first1=Dafydd|title=Government and Politics in Taiwan|date=2018|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-1317285069|page=305|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8hHDwAAQBAJ|quote=Moreover, its status as a vibrant democratic state has earned it huge international sympathy and a generally positive image.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Campbell |first1=Matthew |title=China's Next Crisis Brews in Taiwan's Upcoming Election |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-01-07/china-s-next-crisis-brews-in-taiwan-s-upcoming-election |magazine=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |date=7 January 2020 |issue=4642 |pages=34–39 |issn=0007-7135 |access-date=24 September 2020 |quote=Much has changed in Taiwan since Chiang’s day, but this liminal quality has never really gone away. By almost any functional standard, it's a sovereign country}}</ref><ref name="kyo21">{{cite news |title=Japan's PM refers to Taiwan as country, draws fire from China |date=2021-06-10 |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/7feb56acb3fe-japans-pm-refers-to-taiwan-as-country-draws-fire-from-china.html |work=[[Kyodo News]] |access-date=2021-10-25 |quote=Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga referred to Taiwan as a country, immediately drawing fire on Thursday from mainland China, which regards the island as a renegade province. }}</ref><ref name="kuh21">{{cite news |title=After Being Silent For Decades, Japan Now Speaks Up About Taiwan — And Angers China |first=Anthony |last=Kuhn |date=2021-08-02 |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/26/1020866539/japans-position-on-defending-taiwan-has-taken-a-remarkable-shift |work=npr |access-date=2021-10-25 |quote='We have to protect Taiwan, as a democratic country,' Japan's deputy defense minister, Yasuhide Nakayama, said in a conference in June. }}</ref> It consists of the [[List of islands of Taiwan|island group of Taiwan]]{{efn|There are three contemporary geographic definitions of "Taiwan" (see [[Taiwanese archipelago]] and [[Regions of Taiwan]]), which may refer to: 1. Common name of the state officially named Republic of China, this contains all 166 islands administered by the ROC, collectively known as [[Taiwan Area]]; 2. Taiwan proper region (本島地區), the geographical unit encompass the island of Taiwan and its offshore islands as well as the Penghu islands, excluding the outlying island groups of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and the South China Sea islands; 3. The [[island of Taiwan]], this indicates only the main island in the geographical unit and the state.}}, as well as some [[South China Sea islands]] and several small [[Fujian Province, Republic of China|islands off the shore of southeastern China]] spanning a combined area of {{convert|36193|km2}}<ref name="NDC2021">{{cite report |title=Economic Development R.O.C (Taiwan)|publisher=[[National Development Council (Taiwan)]] |url=https://ws.ndc.gov.tw/Download.ashx?u=LzAwMS9hZG1pbmlzdHJhdG9yLzEwL3JlbGZpbGUvNTYwNy83MzEvMDAxOTgyMy5wZGY%3D&n=RWNvbm9taWMgRGV2ZWxvcG1lbnQgUi5PLkMgKFRhaXdhbikoMjAxMykucGRm&icon=..pdf.|page=4 |access-date=6 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="taiwansnapshot"/>. Taiwan shares [[Maritime boundary|maritime borders]] with the [[China|People's Republic of China]] (PRC) to the northwest, [[Japan]] to the northeast, and the [[Philippines]] to the south. The main [[island of Taiwan]], alternatively known as '''Formosa''', has an area of {{convert|35808|km2}}, with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly [[Urbanization|urbanised]] [[Taiwanese people|population]] is concentrated. The capital is [[Taipei]], which, along with [[New Taipei]] and [[Keelung]], forms the [[Taipei metropolitan area|largest metropolitan area]] of Taiwan. Other major cities include [[Kaohsiung]], [[Taichung]], [[Tainan]] and [[Taoyuan, Taiwan|Taoyuan]]. With 23.45 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated countries in the world.
| |||