Republic of China

The Republic of China (DRC; in Traditional Chinese, 中華民國; pinyin, Zhōnghuá Mínguó; Wade-Giles, Chung-hua Min-kuo), is a state with limited recognition located in East Asia, whose territory since 1949 limited to the Taiwan archipelago (in traditional Chinese, 臺灣; pinyin, Táiwān), name by which it is also known. Its neighboring countries are the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. The island of Taiwan, also known historically as Formosa, has an area of 35,808 square kilometres, with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its population is concentrated. highly urbanized. Taipei is the capital and makes up the largest metropolitan area. Other major cities are Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taoyuan. With 23.4 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated States and is the country with the most inhabitants and the most powerful economy among those that are not part of the United Nations.

In 1912 China took the legal name of the Republic of China, after the overthrow of the monarchy. In 1949, at the end of the civil war, the Nationalist Party was displaced by the Communist Party from most of the Chinese territory, being limited to the territory of the Taiwan archipelago, with the name of the Republic of China, while the rest of the country took the name of the People's Republic of China. Both governments maintained that China remained a single country and each claimed representation.

During the Cold War era, due to this ideological confrontation between the two Chinese regimes, the ROC was frequently cited as nationalist China, at the same time that the People's Republic of China was identified with the nicknames of "popular" or "communist". The current territorial reality has meant that in recent decades these names have fallen into disuse, and therefore the Republic of China —also known as Chinese Taipei in major sporting events— usually internationally receives the The name "Taiwan" while the name "China" internationally applies mainly to the People's Republic of China, this is because the vast majority of States recognize the People's Republic as the legitimate China China and not the ROC.

In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization called the "Miracle Taiwan." In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a one-party military dictatorship to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. In fact, the DRC's export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st largest in the world, with major contributions from steel, machinery, electronics, and chemical manufacturing. The DRC is a developed country, ranking 15th in GDP per capita. It ranks highly in terms of political and civil liberties, education, healthcare, and human development.

The political status of the ROC remains uncertain. The DRC is no longer a member of the UN, having been succeeded by the People's Republic of China in 1971. Taiwan is claimed by the People's Republic of China, which rejects diplomatic relations with countries that recognize it. Taiwan maintains official ties with 14 of the 193 UN member states and the Holy See. International organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant Taiwan membership or allow it to participate only on a non-state basis. Taiwan is a member of the World Trade Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, and the Asian Development Bank under various names. Nearby countries and countries with large economies maintain unofficial links with the DRC through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. At the national level, the main political division is between parties that favor eventual Chinese reunification and promote a Chinese identity in contrast to those that aspire to maintain independence and promote Taiwanese identity, although both parties have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal..

Toponymy

The official name of the state is "Republic of China"; it has also been known by various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the establishment of the ROC in 1912, while the ROC was still on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Chinese government used the abbreviated form "China" (Zhōngguó, 中國) to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle ») and guó ("state", "nation-state"), a term that also developed under the Zhou dynasty in reference to their royal rule, and the name was later applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou dynasty and then to the Central Chinese Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state during the Qing dynasty.

During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government withdrew to the island of Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from " Communist China" (or "Red China").

Already in Taiwan, the ROC was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over the ensuing decades, the People's Republic of China has become commonly known as "China", while the ROC has become known as "Taiwan", the name of the main island, comprising 99% of the territory under your control. In some contexts, especially in ROC government publications, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)". from Republic of China, to differentiate this "Republic of China" from the one that ruled the Chinese mainland from 1912 to 1949.

Currently, the Republic of China (Taiwan) participates in most international forums and organizations under the name of “Chinese Taipei” (Chinese Taipei), due to diplomatic pressure from the Republic People's Republic of China, which tries to prevent other countries from referring to the country as "Taiwan" or "Republic of China" (the two official names that appear on Taiwanese identity documents), as this would reaffirm that it is an independent country. Therefore, it is the agreed name under which the Taiwanese team has been allowed to compete in the Olympic Games since 1984, and was the name of Taiwan as an observer at the World Health Organization, from where it was expelled in 2017 for Chinese government pressure. In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese government also pressured the WHO to censor Taiwan and refer to the country as "Taipei and environs." He had previously lobbied the WHO to pass Taiwan off as a municipality in China, causing it to be briefly nicknamed "Taipei Municipality".

History

The island of Taiwan has been inhabited for at least 30,000 years; its original population is of Malayo-Polynesian origin and developed an agrarian society about which little is known due to a lack of written documents. It is not until the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century when written testimonies of the island's history begin to be obtained. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the territory, naming the island Formosa (meaning "beautiful"), however, the first to settle were the Spanish, who built a town called San Salvador, in the north of the island. The Dutch, for their part, settled in the south of the island, expelling the Spanish in 1642 and dominating the original population of the island for the first time, establishing a colonial government in Dutch Formosa for a period of 40 years. The presence of the Dutch on the island slowed down the territorial advance of Japan, which was interested in conquering Formosa.

In 1662, the Chinese began to control the island for the first time, driving out the Dutch and establishing the Kingdom of Tungning. Later, after its fall, the territory would be integrated into the Qing Empire, being controlled by China for two centuries. In this period, the immigration of the population from mainland China to the island took place, mainly from the Hoklo ethnic group, who came from the Fujian province, although there were also Hakka ethnic groups, from the Canton province.

In 1895, after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded by China to the Japanese Empire as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. However, the Japanese met with the opposition of the local population, mainly of Chinese origin, and they proclaimed the independence of the territory, forming the Republic of Taiwan, which had a brief duration due to the invasion of the Japanese army, which defeated resistance in 5 months. From this moment, the territory of Taiwan was administered by Japan until the end of World War II.

The insurgent army in Wuhan, 1911, during the uprising against Qing.

Sun Yat-sen (image center) during the Xinhai Revolution.

Multitud before Taihoku Auditorium in Taipei celebrates Japan's surrender to the Allies in 1945.

While Taiwan was still under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was founded in mainland China on January 1, 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution, which began with the Wuchang uprising on October 10, 1911, and eventually replaced to the Qing dynasty, thus ending more than two thousand years of imperial rule in China. From its founding until 1949 it was centered in mainland China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), the Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–50), with the strongest central authority during the Nanjing decade (1927– 37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under a one-party authoritarian state.

After the surrender of Japan on October 25, 1945, the United States Navy transported ROC troops to Taiwan to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, the 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 Army to complete the official rotation. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be 'Taiwan's Return Day', but Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were considered by the Allies to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of Taiwan came into force. San Francisco. Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had provided for returning these territories to China, it had no legal status as a treaty, and also in the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, Japan renounced all unspecified claims To which country would they be delivered? This introduced Taiwan's disputed sovereign status and the question of whether the ROC has sovereignty over Taiwan or only Kinmen and Matsu islands.

The island was unaffected by the destruction during World War II. Upon arrival, the Chinese soldiers were amazed and described a developed and almost intact country. However, food shortages soon appeared and epidemics of bubonic plague and cholera spread.

Retreat of nationalists to Taipei: after nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking), then moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before finishing in Taipei.

The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was plagued by rising tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were aggravated by economic problems such as hyperinflation. In addition, 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 Communist Party's working committee also aimed at overthrowing the Kuomintang government. The shooting of a civilian on February 28, 1947 sparked island-wide riots, which were suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Leading estimates of the death toll range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.

After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese communist offensives led to the capture of their capital, Nanking, on April 23 and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the communists founded the People's Republic of China on October 1.

On December 7, 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "war capital" by Chiang Kai-shek). 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 previous population of about six millions. In addition, the ROC government brought many national treasures and much of China's gold and foreign exchange reserves to Taipei.

After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang retained control of Tibet, portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan along with the island of Hainan until 1951, when the communists subsequently captured these territories as well, Hainan would be conquered by the Communists in May 1950 after the Battle of Hainan Island. From this point on, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu (Fujian Province), and two main islands of the Dongsha and Nansha island groups. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all of "China," which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia, and other areas. In mainland China, the victorious communists claimed that they ruled the only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the ROC no longer existed.

One-party Chinese nationalist rule

Chiang Kai-shek, Kuomintang leader from 1925 to his death in 1975.

Martial law, declared in Taiwan in May 1949, continued in effect after the central government moved to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987 and was used as a way to suppress political opposition in the intervening years. During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were jailed or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro. -communists. Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and executed for their real or perceived ties to the communists. 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 "Wrongful Verdict Compensation Foundation" which oversaw compensation to victims and families of the White Terror. President Ma Ying-jeou officially apologized in 2008, expressing his hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to the White Terror.

Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected Taiwan to fall to the communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into a full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, the president of the The United States, Harry S. Truman, intervened again and sent the United States Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China. In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which entered into force respectively on April 28, 1952, and August 5, 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim, and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China prior to 1942. None of the treaties he 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 were the legitimate government of China. conflict of the Chinese Civil War during the 1950s, and the intervention of the United States resulted in notable legislation, such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.

With Chiang Kai-shek, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower greeted the crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.

As the Chinese Civil War continued unabated, the government built military fortifications throughout Taiwan. As part of this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Island Expressway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with rarely publicized details until the 1960s in the Chinese offshore islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Nike-Hercules missile batteries were added to the Taiwanese landscape, with the formation of the Chinese Army's First Missile Battalion not to be deactivated until 1997. The new generations of batteries missile systems have since replaced Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian one-party government, while its economy became industrialized and technology-oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the "Taiwan Miracle", was the result of a tax regime independent from mainland China and backed by, among other things, support from US funds and demand for Taiwanese products. By 1970, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan. Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore, became known as one of the "Four Asian Tigers". Due to the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations considered the ROC to be China's sole legitimate government until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-Mutual Defense Treaty American, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic (as ratified by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).

Until the 1970s, Western critics considered the government undemocratic for advocating martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition, and for controlling the media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that did exist did not seriously compete with the KMT. Therefore, there were no competitive democratic elections. However, from the late 1970s to the 1990s, Taiwan underwent 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 quickly crushed by the authorities, it is today seen as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.

Democratic reforms

Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as president, began reforms to the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born technocrat and educated in the United States, to be its vice president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and launched 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, on the Matsu Islands in 1992, and on Kinmen Island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of Taiwan's political status gradually re-emerged as a controversial issue where, previously, discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.

In 1988, Lee Teng-hui became the first president of the Republic of China born in Taiwan and was democratically elected in 1996.

After Chiang Ching-kuo's death in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him and became the first Taiwanese-born president. Lee continued democratic reforms to government and decreased the concentration of governmental authority in the hands of the mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a localization process in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted from a pan-Chinese point of view in contrast to earlier KMT policies that had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included the printing of Central Bank notes instead of the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and the rationalization of the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly (a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005), elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, they were forced to resign in 1991. Previous nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan came 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 media and in schools were also lifted.

Democratic reforms continued into the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in ROC history. During the last years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption disputes related to the government's release of land and arms purchases, although no legal proceedings were initiated. In 1997, "to meet the requirements of the nation before national unification", the Additional Articles of the ROC Constitution and then the former "five-power constitution& were approved. #3. 4; it became more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) president and was reelected to serve his second and final term since 2004. Polarized politics emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Kuomintang Coalition. -blue, led by the KMT, and the pan-green Coalition, led by the DPP. The former favors eventual Chinese reunification, while the latter favors Taiwanese independence. In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian commented: "The National Unification Council will cease to function. You will not be allocated any budget and your staff must return to their original positions... The National Unification Guidelines will no longer apply".

The president of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen (right) together with the US Senator John McCain in Taipei in 2016.

On September 30, 2007, the ruling DPP passed a resolution affirming a separate identity for China and calling for the promulgation of a new constitution for a 'normal country'. He also called for the general use of & # 34;Taiwan & # 34; as the name of the country, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China. The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on cross-strait relations in 2004 and UN membership in 2008, both held on the same day as China. the presidential elections. Both failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters. The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns about reduced economic growth, legislative deadlock due to an opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.

The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou won the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of higher economic growth and better ties with the People's Republic under a policy of 'mutual rejection'. Ma took office on May 20, 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian resigned and was notified by prosecutors of possible charges. of corruption. Part of the justification for campaigning for closer economic ties with the People's Republic stems from the strong economic growth China has achieved since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts said that despite Ma Ying-jeou's election, diplomatic and military tensions with China had not been reduced.

In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) became the president of Taiwan. President Tsai called on the international community to help Taiwan preserve its democracy despite the threatening language used against Taiwan by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Tsai called on the People's Republic to "democratize, respect human rights and renounce the use of military force against Taiwan".

On May 24, 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that the marriage laws in force at the time had violated the Constitution by denying Taiwanese same-sex couples the right to marry. The Court ruled that if the Legislative Yuan did not pass appropriate amendments to Taiwan's marriage laws within two years, same-sex marriages would automatically become legal in Taiwan. On May 17, 2019, the parliament Taiwan passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making it the first in Asia to do so.

Escalation of tension with China (2022)

In 2022, the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China experienced a significant escalation of tension, due to the maneuvers carried out by the Chinese army in maritime territory adjacent to the Island of Taiwan in response to the visit of Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the United States House of Representatives) to Taipei. The maneuvers, the largest ever carried out, were carried out at some points just 20 km from the Taiwanese coast, using live fire and long-range artillery, which posed a threat to the Taiwanese, in the face of a possible invasion of the island by On August 30, Taiwan's military opened fire in the Kinmen Archipelago at three drones from China that had entered Taiwanese airspace, marking the first time warning shots had been fired against Taiwanese drones. said provenance.

Government and politics

The presidential building in Taipei, the capital.

The ROC government was founded on the ROC Constitution and its Three People's Principles, which states that the ROC "shall be a people's democratic republic, governed by the the people and for the people. The government is divided into five branches (Yuan): the Executive Yuan (cabinet), the Legislative Yuan (Congress or Parliament), the Judicial Yuan, the Control (audit agency) and Examination Yuan (civil service examination agency). The constitution was written before the fall of mainland China to the Communist Party of China. It was created by the KMT for the purpose of all of its claimed territory, including Taiwan, despite the fact that the Communist Party boycotted the wording of the constitution. The constitution took effect on December 25, 1947. The ROC remained under martial law from 1948 to 1987, and much of the constitution was not in effect. Political reforms that began in the late 1970s and continued through the early 1990s transformed it into a multiparty democracy. Since the lifting of martial law, the ROC has democratized and reformed, suspending constitutional components that were originally intended for all of China. This amendment process continues. In 2000, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency, ending continued KMT control of the government. In May 2005, a new National Assembly was elected to reduce the number of parliamentary seats and implement various constitutional reforms. These reforms have been approved; the National Assembly has essentially voted to abolish itself and transfer the power of constitutional reform to a popular vote.

The current president of the Republic of China, Tsai Ing-wen.

The head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces is the president, who is elected by popular vote for a maximum of two four-year terms, the same as the vice president. The president has authority over the Yuan. The president appoints members of the Executive Yuan as his cabinet, including a prime minister, who is officially the president of the Executive Yuan; members are responsible for policy and administration.

The main legislative body is the unicameral Legislative Yuan with 113 seats. Seventy-three are elected by popular vote from single-member constituencies; thirty-four are chosen based on the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties on 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 permanent constitutional convention and electoral college, had some parliamentary functions, but the National Assembly was abolished in 2005 with the power of constitutional amendments delivered to the Legislative Yuan and all eligible voters of the Republic through referendums.

The prime minister is selected by the president without the need for approval by the legislature, but the legislature can pass laws without regard to the president, since neither he nor the prime minister wields veto power. Thus, there is little incentive for the president and the legislature to negotiate legislation if they are from opposite parties. After the election of Chen Shui-bian of the pan-green coalition as president in 2000, legislation repeatedly stalled due to deadlock with the Legislative Yuan, which was controlled by a pan-blue majority. Historically, the Republic China has been dominated by strongman one-party politics. This legacy has resulted in executive powers currently being concentrated in the office of the president rather than the prime minister, despite the fact that the constitution does not explicitly state the scope of the president's executive power.

The Judicial Yuan is the highest judicial body. It interprets the constitution and other laws and decrees, judges administrative lawsuits, and disciplines public officials. The President and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan and thirteen additional judges form the Council of Grand Magistrates. They are nominated and appointed by the president, with the consent of the Legislative Yuan. The highest court, the Supreme Court, consists of a series of civil and criminal divisions, each consisting of a chief justice and four associate justices, all appointed for life. In 1993, a separate constitutional court was established to resolve constitutional disputes, regulate the activities of political parties, and speed up the democratization process. There is no trial by jury, but the right to a fair public trial is protected by law and is respected in practice; many cases are presided over by multiple judges.

Capital punishment is still used in Taiwan, although the government has made efforts to reduce the number of executions. Between 2005 and 2009, capital punishment was suspended. However, according to a 2006 survey, about 80% of Taiwanese still wanted to keep the death penalty.

The Control Yuan is a surveillance agency that oversees the actions of the executive. It can be considered a permanent 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.

The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of officials. It is based on the ancient 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.

Until the late 1980s, Taiwan's leading politicians were virtually all recruited from among the minority heirs of the 1949 defeat, to the detriment of ethnic Taiwanese. "This group of people, known as mainland Chinese and numbering about 1.5 million people, dominated Taiwanese politics for many years, even though they account for only 14% of the population".

Constitution

The Constitution was drafted by the Kuomintang while the ROC was still ruling the mainland and came into force on December 25, 1947. The ROC was under martial law from 1948 to 1987, so much part of the Constitution was not in force during that period. Political reforms beginning in the late 1970s led to the end of martial law in 1987, as Taiwan became a multiparty democracy in the early 1990s. The constitutional basis for this transition to democracy was laid gradually into the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the ROC. In addition, these articles suspended parts of it designed for the government of China, replacing them with articles adapted for the government and the guarantee of the political rights of the residents of the island of Taiwan, as defined in the law regulating the relations between the people of the Taiwan area and the mainland.

The 1947 Constitution did not explicitly prescribe national borders, and the Constitutional Court refused to define them in a 1993 interpretation, viewing the issue as a political matter to be resolved by the executive and legislative branches. The 1947 constitution included articles regarding representatives of the territories of the former Qing dynasty, including Tibet and Mongolia (although it did not specify whether this excluded Outer Mongolia). The ROC recognized Mongolia as an independent country in 1946, after signing the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance of 1945, but after withdrawing to Taiwan in 1949 he renounced the agreement to preserve his claim on China. The additional articles of the 1990s did not alter the national borders, but suspended the articles regarding Mongolian and Tibetan representatives. The ROC began accepting the Mongolian passport and removed the clauses referring to Outer Mongolia from the Law Regulating Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland in 2002. In 2012, the China Affairs Council Mainland issued a statement clarifying that Outer Mongolia was not part of the national territory of the ROC in 1947 and that the termination of the Sino-Soviet Treaty had not altered the national territory according to the Constitution. The Mongolian Affairs Commission and Tibetan Executive Yuan was abolished in 2017.

Political Status

Free area of the Republic of China.Territory claimed.

Until 1949, the ROC was the regime that ruled most of China. That year, the end of the civil war that pitted the Republic against the Communist Party of China, led the government of the Chinese nationalist Kuomintang party to flee to the island of Taiwan, where the old regime has been maintained.

The ROC ceased to be a member of the United Nations in 1971, when member countries voted for the People's Republic to occupy China's seat in the organization. Starting in the 1980s, the idea that the ROC regime should maintain its aspiration to regain control over all of China was gradually abandoned, and the degree of identification between the political regime and its new territorial reality grew. This has motivated, in the last three decades, a process of increasing Taiwanization of the island's institutions, in which the use of the name "Taiwan" has become much more frequent. The name Republic of China on Taiwan was officially favoured, while Chen Shui-bian became president, the name Republic of China (Taiwan). These names have also been used in applications for the Taiwanese regime's readmission to the United Nations, which have been submitted year after year by countries that still recognize the ROC. These annual requests are politically unfeasible, given the frontal opposition of the People's Republic of China to any recognition as an independent country of what they consider to be part of their territory.

Currently, Taiwan is recognized as the Republic of China by these fourteen (14) countries:

• Belize
• Guatemala
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru
• Palaes
• Paraguay
• San Cristóbal y Nieves
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Saint Lucia
• Vatican City
• Swaziland
• Tuvalu

These nations correspond to those governments that receive development aid from Taiwan. This list, however, is reduced year after year due to pressure from the People's Republic of China. The entry of the territory into the World Trade Organization, supported by the authorities of the continent, like that of Hong Kong, had to be carried out under the name of "Chinese Taipei" (Taipei China ).

The last country to break diplomatic relations with the island and establish them with the People's Republic of China was Nicaragua on December 9, 2021.

Relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC)

The historic Ma-Xi meeting in 2015.

The political environment is complicated by the possibility of military conflict if the ROC declares its independence de jure. It is the official policy of the PRC to force unification if peaceful unification is no longer possible, as stated in its anti-secession law, and for this reason there is a substantial military presence on the Fujian coast.

On April 29, 2005, Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan traveled to Beijing and met with Communist Party of China (CCP) General Secretary Hu Jintao, the first meeting between the leaders of the two parties. since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. On February 11, 2014, the head of the Mainland Affairs Council, Wang Yu-chi, traveled to Nanjing and met with the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, the first meeting between high-ranking officials from both sides. Zhang paid a reciprocal visit to Taiwan and met with Wang on June 25, 2014, making Zhang the first ministerial-level PRC official to visit Taiwan On November 7, 2015, Ma Ying-jeou (he was the President of Taiwan) and Xi Jinping (in his capacity as Supreme Leader of the People's Republic of China), but during the meeting, both addressed each other as Mr. Ma and Mr. Xi, traveled to Singapore and met, marking the exchange of The highest level between the two parties since 1949. In response to US support for Taiwan, the PRC defense ministry stated in 2019 that "if anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese army has no choice but to fight at all costs".

The People's Republic supports a version of the "One China" policy, which states that Taiwan and mainland China are part of China, and that the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government of China. It uses this policy to avoid international recognition of the ROC as an independent sovereign state, which means that Taiwan participates in international forums under the name "Chinese Taipei". With the rise of the Taiwanese independence movement, the name "Taiwan" has been used more and more on the island.

President Tsai Ing-wen supported the Hong Kong protests in 2019 and expressed her solidarity with the people of Hong Kong. She vowing that as long as she is the president of Taiwan, she Tsai she will never accept "one country, two systems."

On November 13, 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: "Taiwan has not been a part of China." Following Pompeo's clarification, Joanne Ou, the spokeswoman for Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thanked him, saying:

"The Republic of China on Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country and is not part of the People's Republic of China. This is a fact and the current situation".

Current Political Issues

The dominant political issue in Taiwan is its relationship with the People's Republic of China. For almost 60 years, there were no direct transport links, including direct flights, between Taiwan and mainland China. This was a problem for many Taiwanese companies that had opened factories or branches in mainland China. The former DPP administration feared that such links would lead to closer economic and political integration with mainland China and in the 2006 Lunar New Year Address, Chairman Chen Shui-bian called for a managed opening of the links. Nonstop weekend charters between Taiwan and mainland China began in July 2008 under the current KMT government, with the first nonstop daily charters taking off in December 2008.

Student protest in Taipei against a controversial trade deal with China in March 2014.

Other major political issues include the passage of an arms acquisition bill that the United States authorized in 2001. However, in 2008, the United States was reluctant to send more weapons to Taiwan for fear of hindering the recent improving ties between China and Taiwan. Another major political issue is the establishment of a National Communications Commission to take over the Government Information Office, whose advertising budget exercised great control over the media.

Politicians and their parties have become major political issues. Corruption among some officials in the DPP administration has been exposed. In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian was linked to possible corruption. The political effect on Chairman Chen Shui-bian was great, causing a split in the DPP leadership and supporters alike. It eventually led to the creation of a political camp led by former DPP leader Shih Ming-teh who believes the president should resign. The KMT's assets continue to be another major problem, as it was once the world's richest political party. Near the end of 2006, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou was also hit by corruption controversies, although since the courts have since cleared him of any wrongdoing. After completing his second term as president, Chen Shui-bian was charged with corruption and money laundering. Following his conviction, he is serving a 17-year sentence in Taipei Prison.

Taiwan's leaders, including President Tsai and Prime Minister William Lai, have repeatedly accused China of spreading fake news via social media to create divisions in Taiwanese society, influence voters and support the Beijing's most sympathetic candidates ahead of the 2018 Taiwanese local elections. China has been accused of waging a hybrid war against Taiwan.

National identity

Taiwanese with their flags in 2013.

About 84% of Taiwan's population are descendants of Han Chinese immigrants from Qing China between 1661 and 1895. Another significant fraction are descended from Han Chinese who immigrated from mainland China in the late 1940s and early of the 1950s. The shared cultural background combined with several hundred years of geographical separation, a few hundred years of political separation and foreign influences, as well as hostility between the rival ROC and the PRC have resulted in that national identity is a contentious issue with political connotations. Since the 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 center of political debates. Its acceptance makes the island distinct from mainland China and can therefore be seen as a step towards building a consensus for de jure independence from Taiwan. admits a distinct Taiwanese identity, while the pan-blue coalition only admits a Chinese identity. The KMT has played down this stance in recent years and now supports a Taiwanese identity as part of a Chinese identity.

According to a survey conducted in March 2009, 49% of respondents consider themselves Taiwanese only, and 44% of respondents consider themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese. 3% consider themselves Chinese only. Another survey, conducted in Taiwan in July 2009, showed that 82.8% of respondents consider the ROC and the PRC as two separate countries, each of which which develops on their own. A survey conducted in December 2009 showed that 62% of respondents consider themselves Taiwanese only, and 22% of respondents consider themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese. 8% consider themselves Chinese only. The survey also shows that among respondents between the ages of 18 and 29, 75% consider themselves Taiwanese only.

In the latest survey conducted by National Chengchi University in 2014 and released in early 2015, 60.6% of respondents identified exclusively as Taiwanese, 32.5% identified as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and 3.5% identified themselves as Chinese.

Territorial organization

Administrative divisions since 2014
Taipei New Taipei Keelung Taoyuan Hsinchu(condado) Hsinchu Miaoli Taichung Changhua Penghu Nantou Yunlin Chiayi(condado) Chiayi Tainan Kaohsiung Pingtung Yilan Hualien Taitung Taiwan Province Kinmen Lienchiang(Matsu) Fujian Province

The fact that the Taiwanese constitution includes mainland China as part of the national territory creates the paradox that most of the actual territory belongs to a single province, Taiwan Province, which comprises the five cities under provincial administration direct and the 15 districts of the island of Taiwan, as well as the district of the Pescadores Islands or Penghu, which are also part of the province of Taiwan. In addition, the two main cities of the island, Taipei and Kaohsiung, are cities under the direct administration of the central government, similar in rank to the provincial one. The only part of the territory controlled by the Republic of China that does not belong to the province of Taiwan consists of the small archipelagos of Quemoy, or Kinmen, and Matsu. These small islands are a few kilometers from the coast of mainland China and officially belong to the province of Fuchien or Fukien, equivalent to the province of Fujian (in the official Hanyu Pinyin romanization) of the People's Republic of China.

The practical coincidence in the territorial extension of the national and provincial administrations since 1949 led to a situation of duplicated administration. In the 1990s, with the formal relinquishment of the ROC to regain control of mainland China, Taiwan's provincial institutions have been phased out, and since 1998, the provincial bureaucracy has been virtually abolished, leaving the districts and municipalities as main territorial subdivisions.

In addition to the aforementioned territories, the ROC also claims sovereignty over several islands in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly (Nansha) Islands, also claimed by the PRC and by several countries in Southeast Asia, as well as the Diaoyutai archipelago, in its Chinese name, or Senkaku, in its Japanese name, occupied by Japan, and whose sovereignty is also claimed by the People's Republic of China.

Geography

Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east, with plains softly tilted in the west. The Penghu Islands are west of the main island.

The Republic of China is an island state in East Asia. The main island, historically known as Formosa, makes up 99% of the area controlled by the ROC, which measures 35,808 square kilometers and stretches about 180 kilometers across the Taiwan Strait from the southeast coast of mainland China. The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south, and the South China Sea to the southwest. The smaller islands include a number in the Taiwan Strait that includes the Penghu Archipelago, the Kinmen and Matsu Islands off the Chinese coast, and some of the islands in the South China Sea.

Relief

The main island is a tilted fault block, characterized by the contrast between the eastern two-thirds, consisting mainly of five mountain ranges paralleling the eastern coast, and the flat, gently rolling plains of the western third, where the island resides. majority of the population of Taiwan. There are several peaks over 3,500 m, the highest being Yu Shan at 3,952 m, making Taiwan the fourth highest island in the world. The tectonic boundary that formed these ranges is still active, and the island experiences many earthquakes, some of them highly destructive. There are also many active submarine volcanoes in the Taiwan Strait.

The eastern mountains are heavily forested and support a wide variety of wildlife, while land use in the western and northern lowlands is intensive.

Hydrography

Despite its relatively small size, the island of Taiwan has a total of 151 rivers and streams. The rivers originate in the central area of the country, coinciding with the highest areas such as the Chung-yang mountain range, mostly running from east to west and flowing into the Taiwan Strait. The rivers that flow into the east of the country are short and with a steep slope and a fast current, while those that flow into the west of the country are somewhat longer and slower. All of them carry a large amount of sediment in their course, especially during torrential rains. The channels are wide but shallow.

The island's main river is the Zhuoshui, also known as Jhuóshuěi, 187km long. However, the one with the largest basin is the Gaoping River (171 km), in the south of the country. Other important rivers in the country are the Danshuei or Tamsui (159km) which runs north and crosses the city of New Taipei, the Zengwen (146km), the Dajia (124km), the Dadu (124km), the Keelung (96km) or the Lanyang (73km).

As for the lakes, most of them are located to the west of the Island and are used for storage tanks, risk, and water supply. The Sun and Moon Lake is the largest in the country with an area of 8 km2 and a depth of 30 meters.

Geology

The island of Taiwan lies in a complex tectonic area between the Yangtze plate to the west and north, the Okinawa plate to the northeast, and the Philippine rolling belt to the east and south. The upper crust of the island is composed primarily of a series of terranes, mostly ancient island arcs that have been forced up by the collision of the precursors to the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Sea plate. These have risen further as a result of the detachment of a portion of the Eurasian plate as it was subducted beneath the remnants of the Philippine Sea plate, a process that left the crust beneath Taiwan more buoyant.

Eastern and southern Taiwan are a complex belt system formed by, and part of the zone of, an active collision between the northern portion of Luzon through the Luzon volcanic arc and southern China, where accreted portions of the Luzon Arc and Luzon Forearm form the Eastern Coastal Range and Taiwan Parallel Longitudinal Valley, respectively.

The main seismic faults in Taiwan correspond to the various suture zones between the various terranes. These have produced major earthquakes throughout the island's history. On September 21, 1999, a 7.3 earthquake known as the "921 earthquake" killed more than 2,400 people. The seismic hazard map for Taiwan by the USGS shows 9/10 of the island with the highest rating (most dangerous).

Climate

Climate classification of Köppen for Taiwan.

Taiwan lies on the Tropic of Cancer, and its general climate is tropical marine. The northern and central regions are subtropical, while the southern is tropical and the mountainous regions are temperate. The average annual temperature is 21C, being the long and hot summers and the short and mild winters thanks to the influence of the Kuroshio, a warm ocean current coming from the south that continues towards Japan.

Precipitations are abundant throughout the year, being more intense in the interior and the eastern coast. Average rainfall is 2,600 millimeters per year for the island proper; the rainy season is concurrent with the onset of the summer East Asian monsoon in May and June. The entire island experiences hot and humid weather from June to September. Typhoons are most common in July, August, and September. During winter (November to March), the northeast experiences constant rainfall, while the central and southern parts of the island are mostly sunny.

Despite its latitude, snow is common in the interior of the island, where the highest areas of the country are located, registering annual snowfall at points above 3,000 meters, although on occasions, the elevation of low snow and snowfalls occur in other parts of the country from 1,000 meters above sea level.

Demographics

Bunun dancer with traditional costume.

The population of the ROC is approximately 23.57 million, spread over a total area of approximately 36,000 km²; being the seventeenth most densely populated country in the world, with a population density of approximately 651 inhabitants per square kilometer.

The original population of the island of Taiwan and its associated islands, that is, excluding Kinmen and the Matsu Islands, consisted of a variety of aboriginal groups speaking various Austronesian languages. They have been found to share Austronesian family languages and mitochondrial DNA contribution with the island peoples of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu Islands began as early as the 13th century, while settlement of the island The main text was produced from the 16th century. It was stimulated by Dutch traders who imported workers from Fujian in the 17th century. According to government statistics, at the beginning of the 21st century, more than 95% of the ROC population is ethnic Chinese, while 2.3% are Taiwanese aborigines of Austronesian ethnicity. During the 20th century, the population Taiwan increased more than sevenfold, from about 3 million in 1905 to more than 22 million in 2001. This high growth was caused by a combination of factors, such as very high fertility rates until the 1960s, and low mortality rates.. In addition, there was a population increase when the Chinese civil war ended and the Kuomintang (KMT) forces withdrew, bringing an influx of 1.2 to 2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948–1949., the natural growth rate after that was very fast, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective annual growth rate of up to 3.68% during 1951-1956. Including the Kuomintang forces, who in 1950 accounted for about 25% of all people in Taiwan, the immigration of mainland Chinese (who now make up about 13% of the current population) in the late 1940s was a factor. important in Taiwan's high population growth.

Fertility rates gradually declined thereafter; in 1984, the rate reached replacement level (2.1 children per woman, which is necessary to replace the existing population). Fertility rates have continued to decline. In 2010, Taiwan had a population growth of less than 0.2% and a fertility rate of only 0.9, the lowest rate ever recorded in that country. Taiwan's population is projected to peak at about 23.7 million in 2024 and decline thereafter.

Population distribution

Density of population in Taiwan (km²)

Most of the country's population is located on the western end of the island, corresponding to the plains areas where the country's main cities are located. This causes the population density to be unevenly distributed throughout Taiwan, concentrating mainly on the coastal plain in the north and west of the country. In the north of the country is the capital Taipei and next to it the city of New Taipei, being the most populous in Taiwan with more than 4 million inhabitants. Next to her is also Taoyuan. If we descend to the south, we find other important cities such as Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayí, Tainan and Kaohsiung.

In the eastern part of the country there are medium-sized cities such as Hualien, Taitung, Yilan or Luodong, the interior of the country being very sparsely inhabited, since they correspond to the highest altitude territories, with the city of Nantou being the exception, only big city located in the mountainous area.

Some 130,000 Taiwanese live on Kinmen, an archipelago just 2km from mainland China but administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan), while just over 100,000 people live on the Pescadores Islands, located in the Strait of Taiwan. Taiwan. For its part, the Matsu Islands concentrate a population of approximately 12,000 people.

Ethnic groups

Original geographical distribution of Taiwanese Aboriginal peoples

According to data provided by the ROC government, of the approximately 23 million people living in the country, 95% of the population are Han Chinese, 2% are descendants of the aboriginal peoples of the island and 3% corresponds to the immigrant population.

If we take into account only the population of Taiwanese origin, 97% of them are Han Chinese, with the majority being descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to Taiwan in large numbers starting in the 19th century XVIII. Within the Han Chinese, 70% of the population belongs to the Hoklo subgroup, 14% to the Hakka, with the remaining 14% considered Wàishěngrén, a name given to Chinese immigrants who arrived in Taiwan mainly between 1945 and 1949.

The Hoklo are the largest ethnic group (70% of the total population), whose ancestors migrated from the coastal region of southern Fujian across the Taiwan Strait beginning in the 19th century XVII. The Hakka comprise about 14% of the total population, and are descended from Han immigrants to Guangdong and its environs and Taiwan. For their part, the Wàishěngrén include those descended from the 1,200,000 nationalists who fled to Taiwan after the communist victory on the mainland and who came from different regions of mainland China.

Indigenous Taiwanese aborigines make up about 2% of Taiwan's population, with a population of about 533,600, divided into 16 groups, living mainly in the interior of the country and the eastern half. The Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Saaroa, Sakizaya, Sediq, Thao, Truku and Tsou live mainly in the eastern half of the island, while the Yami inhabit Orchid Island..

Immigration

According to official data, approximately 3.5% of the Taiwanese population are immigrants, mainly from Southeast Asian countries. Most of them are attracted by job opportunities in Taiwan, where a highly diversified economy is concentrated and attractive to foreigners. Citizens of the People's Republic of China are not included in this data.

immigrants in Taiwan by nationality (2016)

	Nationality/ Origin	2021	2019	% in 2019
1	IndonesiaIndonesia	254,403	255,770	33.1%
2	VietnamVietnam	247,817	224,108	29.0%
3	PhilippinesPhilippines	156.996	152.179	19.7%
4	Thailand	67,308	64,381	8.34%
5	MalaysiaMalaysia	22.819	20.549	2.66%
6	JapanJapan	16,160	13.768	1.78%
7	United States	12.847	9.979	1.29%
8	South KoreaSouth Korea	5,132	4,481	0.58%
9	India	4,695	3.748	0.49%
10	CanadaCanada	2,737	2,167	0.28%
11	United KingdomUnited Kingdom	2,961	2.097	0.27%
12	BurmaBurma	1,852	1.671	0.22%
13	France	1.790	1.553	0.20%
14	SingaporeSingapore	1.726	1.456	0.19%
15	South AfricaSouth Africa	1.416	1,207	0.16%
16	Mongolia	684	1,126	0.15%
17	GermanyGermany	1,224	965	0.12%
18	Australia	1,051	838	0.11%
19	Russia Russia	663	578	0.07%
20	ItalyItaly	579	489	0.06%
	Other		9,171	1.19%
	Total		772,281	100.0%
Source: Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan

Languages

Map of the most widely used mother tongues in Taiwan (blue 'cmn' = "mandarin", green 'nan' = "hokkien"/"min nan", magenta 'hak' = "hakka", burdeos 'map' = Austrian languages)

The official language is Mandarin Chinese, the most widely spoken of the Sinitic languages; However, most Taiwanese also speak Taiwanese Hokkien, also called Taiwanese, which is a variant of Min Nan, a Sinitic language spoken in Fujian province, which is located on the Chinese coast facing Taiwan.; This language in turn is one of the southern variants of the Min language; many Taiwanese also speak Hakka Chinese, another Sinitic language. Mandarin is the primary language used in business and education, and is spoken by the vast majority of the population; its writing system uses traditional (unsimplified) characters.

About 70 percent of the population belongs to the Hoklo ethnic group and speaks Hokkien Taiwanese natively in addition to Mandarin. The Hakka group, comprising between 14 and 18 percent of the population, speak Hakka. Although Mandarin is the language of instruction in schools and dominates television and radio, the other Chinese varieties have experienced a renaissance in public life in Taiwan, particularly since restrictions on their use were lifted in the 1990s.

Formosan languages are spoken primarily by Taiwan's indigenous peoples, the island's original inhabitants before migrations from mainland China, who are now a minority. These languages do not belong to the Chinese language family (Sino-Tibetan languages), but to the Austronesian language family, and are written in the Latin alphabet. Their use among aboriginal minority groups has declined as the use of Mandarin has increased. Of the 14 extant Formosan languages, five are considered dead.

Taiwan is officially multilingual. A national language in Taiwan is legally defined as "a natural language used by an original group of Taiwan people and the Taiwan Sign Language." According to 2019 data, national language policies are in the early stages of implementation, with Hakka and indigenous languages designated as such.

Religion

The ROC Constitution protects people's freedom of religion and belief practices. Freedom of religion in Taiwan is strong and well-established.

In 2005, the census reported that the five largest religions were: Buddhism, Taoism, Jiguandao, Protestantism, and Catholicism. According to Pew Research, Taiwan's religious composition by 2020 is estimated to become 43.8% folk religions, 21.2% Buddhist, 13.7% unaffiliated, 5.8% Christian, and 15.5% other religions. Taiwanese aborigines comprise a notable subgroup among professing Christians: "...more than 64% identify as Christian... Church buildings are the most obvious markers of aboriginal villages, distinguishing them from Taiwanese or Hakka" villages. There has been a small Muslim community of the Hui people in Taiwan since the XVII.

Confucianism is a philosophy that deals with secular moral ethics and serves as the foundation of Chinese and Taiwanese culture. Most Taiwanese tend to combine the secular moral teachings of Confucianism with the religions with which they are affiliated.

According to 2009 data, there were 14,993 temples in Taiwan, roughly one place of worship for every 1,500 residents. 9,202 of those temples were dedicated to Taoism and Buddhism. In 2008, Taiwan had 3,262 churches, an increase of 145.

A significant percentage of Taiwan's population is not 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 ranking of #1 in the 2018 Freedom of Thought Report, along with the Netherlands and Belgium.

Taiwan is clearly an atypical case in the top 3 of fully cleared countries. It is not European, and demographically it is much more religious. But in its relatively open, democratic and tolerant society, we have not recorded evidence of laws or social discrimination against members of the non-religious minority.

Economy

Taipei 101, symbol of Taiwan's economic success, was the highest building in the world from 2004 to 2010.

Historical developments in real GDP per capita in Taiwan.

Taiwanese rapid growth and industrialization during the latter half of the XX century has been called "The Taiwanese Miracle" ». Taiwan is one of the four Asian tigers, along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore.

In 1945, hyperinflation was rampant in mainland China and Taiwan, caused by the war with Japan. To isolate Taiwan from it, the Nationalist government created a new currency for the island, and began a price stabilization program. These efforts helped slow inflation significantly. In 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War, the US began an aid program that resulted in complete price stabilization in 1952. The KMT government instituted many laws and land reforms that were never effective in mainland China; implemented a policy of import substitution, and managed to produce those imported goods locally. Much of this was possible thanks to financial aid from the US, which subsidized the high costs of local production.

Especially in the 1950s and 1960s, Taiwan was, along with South Korea and Israel, one of the countries that received massive economic aid from the United States and international financial institutions.

Today the ROC is a dynamic, export-focused capitalist economy with gradually declining state involvement in foreign trade and investment. In keeping with this trend, some large state-owned banks and industrial firms have been privatized. Real GDP growth has averaged 8% over the past three decades. Exports are the main reason for industrialization. The trade surplus is substantial, and foreign reserves are the fifth largest in the world. The Republic of China (DRC) has its own currency, the New Taiwan Dollar.

Since the early 1990s, economic ties between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the DRC have been very prolific. In 2008, more than US$150 billion was invested in the PRC by Taiwanese companies, and about 10% of Taiwan's workforce works in the PRC, sometimes running their own businesses. Although the Taiwanese economy benefits from this development, some have raised concerns that the island is becoming increasingly dependent on the mainland Chinese economy. In 2008 a white paper from the Department of Industrial Technology states: "Taiwan should seek to maintain a stable relationship with China while continuing to defend its national security, and avoiding excessive 'sinicization' of China." of the Taiwanese economy. Others argue that the close trade ties between China and Taiwan would make any Chinese military intervention in Taiwan very costly and therefore less likely.

In 2001, agriculture made up just 2% of GDP, as opposed to 35% in 1952. Traditional labor-intensive industries have been moved abroad, being replaced by more capital-intensive and technology-intensive industries. The DRC has become a major foreign investor in China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. An estimated 50,000 Taiwanese businesses and 1,000,000 business people and their dependencies are established in mainland China.

Due to its conservative financial management and entrepreneurial strength, the DRC suffered little compared to its neighbors during the 1997 Asian crisis. Unlike its neighbors South Korea and Japan, the Taiwanese economy is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, more than by large business groups. The global economic slowdown, combined with poor policy coordination by the new administration and increasing bad debts in the banking system, pushed Taiwan into recession in 2001, the first year of negative growth since 1947. Due to the relocation of companies labor intensive in mainland China, unemployment reached levels not seen since the oil crisis of the 1970s. This was a major issue in the 2004 presidential election. Growth averaged more than 4% in the period 2002-2006 and the unemployment rate fell below 4%.

The DRC sometimes joins international organizations under a politically neutral name. The DRC is a member of government organizations such as the World Trade Organization under the name of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei) and the WTO) since 2002.

Tourism

Taiwan ranks 34th among the countries in the world for tourism. Tourism represents approximately 6% of the national GDP. In 2019, the number of tourists who arrived in the country was 11,864,105, compared to the 3,519,827 it received in 2006, which represents a considerable increase in tourism, representing an increase of 29% in only 13 years. Compared to the year 2018, tourism increased by 7% in the country. Most of the country's tourists access it through the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Despite its size, Taiwan is a destination that offers innumerable options to tourists, from adventure tourism in the interior mountain area, cultural tourism for the traditional architecture of the country and its religions, gastronomic tourism with the mixture Chinese cuisine with Japanese influences, or leisure tourism with its usual street night markets. The most visited places in the country are Taipei, with its National Museum that houses more than 700,000 works of traditional Chinese culture belonging to the ancient dynasties of the country or the impressive Taipei 101; the Taroko Gorge, in the National Park of the same name; the many hot springs in the country or the Lantern Festival held in Pingxi.

Transportation

Transportation in Taiwan is governed by the country's Ministry of Transportation and Communications and is made up of the network of highways, railways, high-speed rail, subway lines, and air and sea transportation.

Taiwan's highway network is 43,206km long, divided into national highways (expressways), provincial highways, county highways, municipal highways, and special roads. Expressways in Taiwan mainly connect the north and southwest of the country through the country's western coastal plain, connecting Taipei with other major cities in the country such as Taichung, Taoyuan, Tainan or Kaohsiung. The only highway that runs through the northeast of the country is the one that connects Taipei with the city of Su-ao, in Yilan County. The interior of the country is connected by a highway to the city of Nantou, in the mountainous region. Some of the national roads are tolled. The rest of the country is connected by provincial and regional highways, which connect the different points of the country from north to south and from west to east.

Railway network map in Taiwan

Rail transport in Taiwan has more than 2,000km of length distributed throughout the island and divided into railways and high-speed trains. The railway network began during the Qing Dynasty and was especially strengthened during the years of control by the Japanese Empire, which invested in the island's infrastructure. Rail transport is widely used mainly to avoid traffic on the island, which has a high population density in the north and west of the country. There are three main lines connecting Keelung and Kaohsiung (the most widely used line), Keelung and Taitung on the east coast, and Taitung with Pingtung on the south of the island, respectively. There are also other railway sections that connect these lines with other cities in the interior. There is a project to join Kaohsiung and Kenting, in the extreme south, where the National Park of the same name is located. As for high speed, it connects the north and south of the island at a speed of 300km/h, currently having a single line that was launched in 2007.

Regarding the Urban Rail Transport (Metro), in Taiwan there are five cities that have a metro network. Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung and Taichung. The Taipei metro network is the most extensive, with 6 lines that run through the country's capital, with a length of more than 145 km.

Taiwan has 18 airports, 6 of which operate with international flights. The busiest is Taipei Songshan Airport, which along with Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport receives most of the country's visitors. Another airport with a large number of passengers is Magong, in the Pescadores Islands, and Kinmen, the two main archipelagos controlled by the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the strait of the same name.

For its part, Taiwan has more than 400 commercial ports, however maritime transport mainly arrives at the ports of Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung and Hualien.

Education

Taiwan's higher education system was established by Japan during the colonial period. However, after the ROC took over in 1945, the system was quickly superseded by the same system as in mainland China that combined features of the Chinese and American education systems.

Library of the University of Taiwan.

Taiwan is known for adhering to the Confucian paradigm of valuing education as a means to improve socio-economic position in society. Heavy investment and cultural valuing of education have catapulted the resource-poor nation to the top of the world educational rankings. Taiwan is one of the top-performing countries in reading, math, and science. In 2015, Taiwanese students achieved some of the best results in the world in mathematics, science, and literacy, as assessed by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), with an average of 519 students, compared to the average of the OECD of 493, ranking seventh in the world. In 2018, the literacy rate in Taiwan was 98.87%.

The Taiwanese education system has been praised for a number of reasons, including its comparatively high test scores and its leading role in promoting Taiwan's economic development by creating one of the most educated workforces in the world. Taiwan has also It has been praised for its high college admission rate, where the college acceptance rate has risen from around 20 percent before the 1980s to 49 percent in 1996 and more than 95 percent since 2008, among the most high in Asia. The nation's high college entrance rate has created a highly-skilled workforce that makes Taiwan one of the most educated countries in the world with 68.5% of Taiwanese high school students who go to university. Taiwan has a high percentage of its citizens with a tertiary education degree where 45 percent of Taiwanese aged 25-64 have a university degree or higher compared to tion with an average of 33 percent among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Tsing Hua National University (NTHU).

On the other hand, the system has been criticized for putting excessive pressure on students while stifling creativity and producing an oversupply of over-educated college graduates and a high rate of graduate unemployment. With large numbers of college 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 work in low-end jobs for wages well below their expectations. Taiwan's universities have also been criticized for not being able to fully meet the requirements and demands of the fast-moving job market of the century XXI of Taiwan, citing a skills mismatch among a large number of self-assessed and over-assessed college graduates who do not match the demands of the modern Taiwanese job market. The Taiwanese government has also been criticized for undermining the economy, as it has not been able to produce enough jobs to meet the demands of numerous underemployed college graduates.

As the Taiwanese economy is largely based on science and technology, the job market demands that people who have attained some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering, gain a competitive advantage in the job search. Although current Taiwanese law requires only nine years of schooling, 95% of high school and high school graduates attend a senior vocational high school, university, junior college, vocational school, or other institution of higher learning.

Many Taiwanese students attend private schools, or bushiban, to improve their problem-solving skills and knowledge when facing exams in subjects such as mathematics, natural sciences, history, and many others.. Courses are available for the most popular subjects and include lectures, reviews, private tutoring sessions, and recitations.

Universities

The following universities were founded by the Japanese government (1895-1945)

Many universities in Taiwan were originally established in the ROC before the withdrawal of the ROC government from mainland China to the island of Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. Some of the universities that were originally established on the mainland were re-established in Taiwan. To avoid ambiguity, the ROC government generally added the word national in front of those universities in Taiwan to differentiate them from those in China. They are the following:

Culture

Taiwan's cultures are a hybrid mixture of various sources, incorporating elements of traditional Chinese culture, attributable to the historical and ancestral origin of most of its current residents, Japanese culture, traditional Confucianist beliefs, and values each more western.

Apo Hsu and the NTNU Symphony Orchestra on the stage of the National Theatre.

After its transfer to Taiwan, the Kuomintang imposed an official interpretation of traditional Chinese culture on Taiwan. The government launched a policy promoting Chinese calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, folk art, and Chinese opera.

The status of Taiwanese culture is still under debate. Whether Taiwanese culture is a regional form of Chinese culture or a distinct culture is disputed. Reflecting the continuing controversy surrounding Taiwan's political status, politics continues to play a role in the conception and development of a Taiwanese cultural identity, especially within the previously dominant framework of a Taiwanese and Chinese dualism. In recent years, the concept of Taiwanese multiculturalism has been proposed as a relatively apolitical alternative vision, which has allowed for the inclusion of mainlanders and other minority groups in the ongoing redefinition of Taiwanese culture as systems of collective meaning and traditional patterns of thought. and behavior shared by the people of Taiwan. Identity politics, coupled with more than a hundred years of political separation from mainland China, has led to distinct traditions in many areas, including cuisine and music.

One of the biggest attractions in Taiwan is 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 largest collections of Chinese art and artifacts in the world. 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% is on display at any one time. The People's Republic said the collection was stolen and has asked 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 heated up recently; Beijing Palace Museum curator Zheng Xinmiao said that the artifacts in the Chinese and Taiwanese museums are "China's cultural heritage jointly owned by people across the Taiwan Straits."

Taiwan's classical music culture is highly developed, featuring artists such as violinist Cho-Liang Lin, pianist Ching-Yun Hu, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society artist director Wu Han Karaoke, drawn from contemporary Japanese culture, is extremely popular in Taiwan, where it is known as KTV. KTV companies operate in a hotel 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 evening affairs for families, friends, or businessmen. The tour buses that travel around Taiwan have several televisions, equipped not for watching movies, but mainly for singing karaoke. The entertainment counterpart of a KTV is an MTV, found much less frequently in Taiwanese cities. There, DVD movies can be selected and played in a private movie theater. However, MTV, more than KTV, has a growing reputation as a place where young couples go to be alone and intimate.

Taiwan has a high density of 24-hour convenience stores, which, in addition to regular services, provide services on behalf of financial institutions or government agencies, such as collecting parking fees, utility bills, fines for traffic violations and credit card payments. They also provide a package delivery service.

Taiwanese culture has also influenced other cultures. Bubble tea and milk tea are available in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, Europe, and North America. Taiwanese TV shows are popular in Singapore, Malaysia and other Asian countries. Taiwanese films have won several international awards at film festivals around the world. Taiwanese director Ang Lee has directed such critically acclaimed films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Eat Drink Man Woman; Sense and Sensitivity; Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi and Lust, Caution. Other famous Taiwanese directors include Tsai Ming-liang, Edward Yang, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Another relevant personality from Taiwan is Tzuyu from the South Korean group TWICE.

Gastronomy

Tea denomination sites in Taiwan.

Pearl milk tea (also known as bubble or boba tea) is a popular tea drink available in many parts of the world. There is a noticeable Japanese influence due to the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Taiwanese cuisine itself is often associated with influences from the middle and southern provinces of China, mainly Fujian province, but influences from all over China can be easily found due to the large number of Chinese who immigrated to Taiwan in the end of the Chinese Civil War and when Taiwan was under Chinese rule (ROC). In the process, Taiwan developed a distinctive style of cooking.

For its part, Taiwanese tea culture includes tea arts, tea ceremony and a very social way of enjoying tea. While the most common teas are oolongs, especially Taiwanese oolongs like Iron Goddess and Alpine Oolong. However, black teas and green teas are also popular. Many of the classical arts can be seen in tea culture, such as calligraphy, flowers, or incense.

Sports

Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, New Taipei

Baseball is Taiwan's national sport and is a popular spectator sport. In the 2019 MLB season there have been sixteen Taiwanese Major League Baseball players in the United States, most notably pitchers Chien-Ming Wang and Wei-Yin Chen. The Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan was established in 1989, eventually absorbing the competing Taiwan Major League in 2003. As of 2015, the CPBL has four teams with an average attendance of over 5,000 per person. game.

Besides baseball, basketball is the other major sport in Taiwan.

Taiwan participates in international sporting organizations and events under the name of "Chinese Taipei" because of his political status. In 2009, Taiwan hosted two international sporting events on the island. The 2009 World Games were held in Kaohsiung from July 16 to 26, 2009. Taipei hosted the 21st Summer Deaf Olympics in September of the same year. Additionally, Taipei hosted the Summer Universiade in 2017.

The Chinese Taipei national soccer team is controlled by the Chinese Taipei Football Association, which is affiliated with the AFC and FIFA. They have qualified for 2 editions of the Asian Cup, where they achieved third place in the 1960 edition. Despite this, they were never considered a strong team in Asia, as they are currently a mid-level team on the continent.. Within the territory, there is the Taiwan Premier Soccer League, the country's highest category, which was founded in 2016 and has a professional nature.

Taekwondo has become a mature and successful sport in Taiwan in recent years. At the 2004 Olympic Games, 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. Later taekwondo competitors such as Yang Shu-chun have strengthened Taiwan's taekwondo culture.

Taipei Arena

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 1953 Asian Table Tennis Championships and a 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, won men's doubles in 2013 at the 52nd World Table Tennis Championships. Playing for Taiwan, Chen Jing won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. 17-year-old Lin Yun-Ju defeated reigning world champion Ma Long and No. 3 ranked fan Fan Zhendong by winning the 2019 men's singles at the T2 Diamond Series in Malaysia.

Badminton, a professional player named Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), at the age of 22, became the world number 1 of the sport in December 2016, and since then she has remained in the top 10 of the BWF (Badminton World Federation) world ranking, thus making badminton in Taiwan very popular at any age of the Taiwanese people.

Taiwan has participated in all editions of the Olympic Games since its first participation in Melbourne 1956, under the name of Chinese Taipei, having won a total of 36 medals (until 2022). His most successful participation was during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in Japan in 2021, where a total of 12 medals were achieved: 2 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze. As for the Winter Olympics, Chinese Taipei has not won any medals to date.

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