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Taiwan is an island
in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to
refer to the territories governed by the Republic
of China (ROC) and to ROC itself, which governs
the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green
Island in the Pacific off the Taiwan coast, the
Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen
and the Matsu Islands off the coast of mainland
Fujian Province. The Kuomintang (KMT) party lost
its control of mainland China to Chinese Communist
Party in the Chinese Civil war and moved its government
to the island of Taiwan in 1949 which it had acquired
control of from Japan in 1945. The island groups
of Taiwan and Penghu (except the municipalities
of Taipei and Kaohsiung) are officially administered
as Taiwan Province of the ROC. However, in practice,
almost all government power is exercised at the
national and local (city/county) levels.
The
People's Republic of China (PRC) claims Taiwan
as its province although the PRC has never controlled
Taiwan or any of the current ROC territory commonly
referred to as "Taiwan". The PRC claims that Taiwan
has been a part of China for hundreds of years.
In 1895, Japan took over control of Taiwan following
its military defeat of China in First Sino-Japanese
War. Taiwan again came under Chinese control after
Japan surrendered to the ROC subsequent to Japan's
military defeat in World War II. ROC was the de
facto government of China . The PRC considers
itself the successor of the ROC and is therefore
entitled to all ROC holdings, including Taiwan.
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Taiwan
is officially known as the Republic of China (ROC).
Founded in 1912, the ROC is Asia's first constitutional
republic. The ROC government, led by the Kuomintang
(KMT), relocated to Taiwan in 1949 when the Chinese
Communist Party established the People's Republic of
China (PRC) on the mainland. It has since exercised
jurisdiction over Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and
numerous other islets. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait
have since been governed as separate territories.
The
main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa (from Portuguese
(Ilha) Formosa, meaning "beautiful (island)"), is located
in East Asia off the coast of mainland China, southwest
of the main islands of Japan but directly west of the
end of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, and north-northwest of
the Philippines. It is bound to the east by the Pacific
Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and the Luzon
Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait and to the
north by the East China Sea. The island is 394 kilometers
(245 miles) long and 144 kilometers (89 miles) wide
and consists of steep mountains covered by tropical
and subtropical vegetation.
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