Taiwan - Traditional Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; Simplified Chinese: 台湾; Hanyu Pinyin: Táiwān; Wade-Giles: T'ai-wan; Taiwanese: Tâi-oân) is an island in East Asia, but the term Taiwan is also commonly used to collectively refer to the territories governed by the Republic of China (ROC), which include the island of Taiwan, Lanyu (Orchid Island) and Green Island in the Pacific coast off the Taiwan island, the Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and Matsu off the coast of mainland Fujian.

The main island of Taiwan, sometimes also referred to as Formosa (from the Antique Spanish, meaning "beautiful"), is located at 22°57′N 120°12′E, off the coast of mainland China, south of Japan and north of the Philippines. It is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and the Luzon Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait and to the north by the East China Sea. The island is 394 kilometers (245 miles) long and 144 kilometers (89 miles) wide and consists of steep mountains covered by tropical and subtropical vegetation.

In an ongoing dispute, the People's Republic of China (PRC) disputes the Republic of China's right to exist, and claims Taiwan to be part of its own territory which should be eventually reunified with the People's Republic of China under their "one country, two systems" which currently used for the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao. This claim is rejected by the Republic of China, which views itself as a independent sovereign state distinct from the People's Republic of China.

Democratic transition
After Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975, Vice President Yen Chia-kan briefly took over from 1975 to 1978 according to the Constitution, but actual power was in hands of the Premier of the Executive Yuan, Chiang Ching-kuo, who was KMT chairman and a son of Chiang Kai-shek. During the presidency of Chiang Ching-kuo from 1978 to 1988, Taiwan's political system began to undergo gradual liberalization. Martial law, which had been in effect since 1948, was lifted in 1987, and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party was formed and allowed to participate overtly in politics. After Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988, Vice President Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as the first Taiwan-born president of the ROC and chairman of the KMT. One-party rule lost its effective dominance with the continuation of peaceful social and political reforms. Lee became the first ROC president elected by popular vote in 1996.

In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party won the Presidential election, marking the first ever peaceful democratic transition of power to an opposition party in Chinese history and a decisive end to the KMT's monopoly in administration of the central government. [19] After surviving a politically controversial assassination attempt the night before the 2004 election, Chen was re-elected to his second four-year term by an extremely slim margin. [20] In the 2005 local elections, the KMT swept through the island and captured several traditionally DPP counties. Today, both parties have moderated their positions and appear to support maintenance of the status quo in the short term. However, Chen's recent executive order that the National Unification Council "cease to function" is criticized by some of his opponents as dangerous in terms of cross-strait policy and neglectful of the economic needs of Taiwan.