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  • Taiwan, which is officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia.

  • Its neighbours include China (officially the People's Republic of China) to the west,

  • Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

  • Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the UN with a population of over 23,500,000.

  • And it also possesses the largest economy of any state outside of the UN.

  • The Taiwanese government claims to be the legitimate government of china and the reason

  • for this goes back to the early 20th century.

  • Taiwan had been a Chinese colony until 1895 when it was ceded to imperial japan by the

  • Qing dynasty.

  • While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC), the government which

  • still rules Taiwan, was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing

  • dynasty.

  • Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan.

  • However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War, which had stoped because of the war with

  • japan, led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC

  • government to Taiwan in 1949.

  • Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective

  • area of control since 1949 has been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with

  • the main island making up 99% of its territory.

  • As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the

  • United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its

  • UN membership.

  • Since then most nations officially recognise Taiwan as part of the people's republic

  • of china but unofficially they have embassies and conduct business with Taiwan as if it

  • was just another country.

  • The flag of the Republic of China is red with

  • a navy blue canton bearing a white sun with twelve triangular rays.

  • In Chinese, the flag is commonly described as Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth to reflect its features.

  • It was first used in mainland China by the (Kuomintang) KMT, the Chinese Nationalist

  • Party in 1917 and was made the official flag of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928.

  • As Taiwan had been under Japanese rule since 1895, the flag began use in Taiwan after the

  • 1945 handover.

  • The flag is now mostly used within Taiwan and other outlying islands where the ROC relocated

  • in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

  • The canton known as "Blue Sky with a White Sun" was created by a revolutionary called

  • Lu Hao-tung in the late 1800s.

  • The twelve rays of the white Sun symbolize the twelve months and the twelve traditional

  • units of time (shichen), which correspond to two modern hours.

  • A fellow nationalist, Sun Yat-sen, added the "Red Earth" to the flag to signify the blood

  • of the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in order to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and

  • create the ROC.

  • Together, the three colours of the flag correspond to the Three Principles of the People: Blue

  • represents nationalism and liberty; White represents democracy and equality; and Red

  • represents the people's livelihood and community.

  • Flying of the flag is banned in mainland china and is used as a means of protest against

  • the PRC government but despite this, the PRC strangely have criticized Taiwan independence

  • groups for wishing to change or abolish the ROC flag, and has implied that legal steps

  • to do so would bring a strongly negative reaction from the PRC.

  • The flag was also recently banned in Cambodiaby Prime Minister Hun Sen in February

  • 2017 who outlawed the display of the ROC flag in Cambodia due to the One-China policy.

Taiwan, which is officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia.

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