Portal:Taiwan/Intro

Taiwan (also known as Formosa) is an island located in the Western Pacific and East Asia (22°57′N 120°12′E) with a tropical climate, annual typhoons and occasional earthquakes.

It is governed as Taiwan Province under the Republic of China (ROC) government along with the lesser islands of Pescadores Islands, Orchid Island, Green Island, Taiping Island, and Pratas Islands.

The islands of Quemoy and Matsu Islands are administered under a separate Fukien Province by the ROC government. Although Taipei City and Kaohsiung City are on Taiwan island, they are not administered as part of Taiwan Province but directly administered by the ROC government. The surrounding Taipei County and Kaohsiung County however, are part of Taiwan Province. It is commonly believed that Taipei is the capital of Taiwan but in 1956 the provincial government was moved to Jhongsing Village in Nantou County. This is not to be confused with Taipei as the provisional capital of the ROC which claims its true capital at Nanjing and claims the territory of mainland China and other lost territories including Mongolia, northern Burma, and parts of former Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

The political status of Taiwan is a sensitive issue on both Taiwan and mainland China due to the existence of two Chinese governments that both claim sovereignty over China and Taiwan territories. The ROC claim over the Chinese mainland has lost some legitimacy since losing it to the communists who established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Since the 1970s, many nations switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing after the ROC lost its seat at the United Nations to the PRC. The ROC government has governed Taiwan since its retrocession to China by Japan in 1945 whereas the PRC has never had any jurisdiction over the island and seeks to acquire the island via diplomatic isolation of the ROC and threatening military action if the island should declare independence.