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 United Nations with a
population of over 23,500,000, and 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
areaof 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 Cambodia – by Prime Minister Hun Sen in February
2017 who outlawed the display of the ROC flag in Cambodia due to the One-China policy.