Taiwan

Taiwan Ilha Formosa The Republic of China (Zhonghua Minguo) since 1949. It was named ‘Beautiful Island’ in 1590 by the Portuguese. It was briefly occupied by the Dutch in the 17th century (1624–61) before succumbing to imperial Chinese rule for the first time in 1683 and becoming part of Fujian Province; it became a separate province of China in 1886. At the close of the Sino‐Japanese War in 1895 it was ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and administered as a colony; at the end of the Second World War in 1945 it was returned to China, once more becoming a province. The communist victory in the Civil War in 1949 forced the Guomindang, the National People's Party, led by General Chiang Kai‐shek (1887–1975), to flee the mainland and settle in Taiwan. It still claimed to be the lawful government of all China and indeed had a permanent seat on the UN Security Council until 1971 when it was replaced by the mainland People's Republic of China (PRC). While both Republics claim sovereignty over Taiwan, they both regard it as a province of China, a renegade one as far as the PRC is concerned. The island, therefore, has no legal status as an independent country. However, Taiwan's ‘One China’ policy was called into question in 1999 when a ‘state‐to‐state’ relationship was announced, reinforced in 2002 when the President proclaimed that one country existed on each side of the Taiwan Strait. The name means ‘Terrace Bay’ from tái ‘terrace’ and wān ‘bay’, a reference to its terrain which, on the west, consists of a series of terraced tablelands descending to the sea. It gives its name to the strait between the mainland of China and Taiwan; this, too, was called Formosa by the Portuguese. The Republic of China consists not only of the main island of Taiwan, but also of several much smaller islands. It is also referred to as Nationalist China and has used the title ‘Chinese Taipei’ (notably in successive Olympic Games and in various international organizations) and the ‘Republic of China on Taiwan’; in 1992, as an observer to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it went under the name of the ‘Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, P'enghu, Kinmen and Matsu’.