TAIWAN

An East Asian island nation, Taiwan faces unique problems both at home and abroad. Although it is a fully functioning independent nation, it is generally considered to be part of China. Indeed, its rulers claim to be China's legitimate government. At the same time, the communist government of the nearby People's Republic of China claims Taiwan as a province. Large political and economic differences between the two countries make the possibility of peaceful reconciliation between them appear unlikely. Taiwan's prosperous people are divided on whether they should reunify with the mainland, remain entirely separate, or negotiate a new type of relationship with mainland China. These conflicts spring from the islands'history: management by China's Ching Dynasty, occupation by Japan, participation in China's revolution in the early twentieth century, Taiwan's return to China after World War II, development under Chiang Kai-shek and his son as the leaders of the Republic of China, and the evolution to a democratic government and international economic power.

Lying across the Taiwan Strait, ninety miles east of mainland China, Taiwan is an island nation just under 14,000 square miles in area—approximately the size of the U. S. state of Maryland—with dozens of smaller islands. Its government controls the big island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa ), twenty-one nearby islands, the sixty-four Penghu Islands, twelve Quemoy Islands, and nineteen Matsu Islands. Taiwan's total population in in 2002 was 22.5 million people.

Early History

In the year 607 c. E. China's Sui Dynasty began sending officials to Taiwan to govern the island. The dynasties that followed did the same. In 1624 the Dutch occupied a portion of the island, but Chinese forces drove the Europeans out in 1661. In 1683 the Ching Dynasty began to pay attention to Taiwan, building roads and encouraging farming and trade among the small population. Most inhabitants were Kaoshan, a group with its own language.