7 Surprising and Unique Facts about Taiwan

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In this brief video you can find seven little known facts about Taiwan.

More information about the video content bellow:
1. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a democratic state in East Asia. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and also possesses the largest economy of any state outside of the UN.

2. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949.

3. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto 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.

4. In Taiwan there are 14 recognised aboriginal tribes. Together they make up 1.8% of the country's population. It is estimated that aboriginals had been living in the country for 8,000 years before mass immigration by the Han Chinese commenced in the 17th century.

5. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare, public education, economic freedom, and human development. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.

6. Taipei, officially known as Taipei City, is the capital city and a special municipality of Taiwan. Taipei is home to various world-famous architectural or cultural landmarks which include Taipei 101, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong, Lungshan Temple of Manka, National Palace Museum, Presidential Office Building, Taipei Guest House, Ximending, and several night markets dispersing over the city.

7. Taiwan has an area of 39167 square km. That’s about the size of Moldova. But there are over 23.5 million people living in the country, making Taiwan one of the most densely populated countries on Earth.

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[bryanc]

Taiwan. My beautiful and humble neighbor. Love and blessings from the PH. 😁

[MrF]

Finally it is Taiwan:) Thanks for making this video about our country. Very nice summary of our complicated political status.

[liabutler]

Learn something about Taiwan, love Taiwan.

[turner]

Thank you for introduce our country ;))

and Welcome y'all guys visit to incredible TAIWAN~ !!!

[lanahanbrian]

Taiwan isn't perfect, no country is... But I still have love for it. And if you come here as a tourist I can say you are bound to have a great experience.

[firefox]

I'm half Chinese (mainland Chinese) but I admit, Taiwan is better than China.

[hungi]

First of all, thank you for making such a video to express your love to Taiwan.

However, I have to point out that there are serious mistakes in some description regarding Taiwan's post-war history and its legal status.

Please be noted that, for issues heavily affected by political factors, such as Taiwan legal status issue, Wikipedia is not a very reliable source due to the fact that it can be edited freely and the more people you have, the more editorial power you have over the final result.

You have certainly done your research to construct your understanding of Taiwan legal status. However, it is also clear that some foreigners were misled by interpretations of legal effects of certain documents (such as Cairo Declaration/Communique) made by people pursuing political interests rather than people making concise comments in accordance with the rules of international law.

From legal perspective, the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan (and Penghu) is still "undetermined" due to the arrangement made in the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan signed in 1951 in the Cold-war context. Unlike what some said, Taiwan was never ceded to the Republic of China after WW2, and the ROC government merely took the administrative role of Taiwan and Penghu in 1945 under the Allies' military occupation arrangement depicted in General Order No. 1 issued on September 2, 1945.

It is a rule of international law that "military occupation does not transfer territorial sovereignty" and hence the ROC government could not attain sovereignty of Taiwan simply by occupying Taiwan in the post-war military occupation context.

Japan did sign the Instrument of Surrender in 1945, however, it's merely an armistice and did not have any legal effect of transferring territorial sovereignty of any part of its territory to the ROC.

The fact that Japan still had to sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the Allied Powers in 1951 and renounced its sovereignty over Taiwan accordingly is a solid proof that Japan did not lose sovereignty over Taiwan before the SFPT entered into effect in 1952. You just cannot give up what you don't have. For Japan to renounce its territorial sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952, it must possess it until then.

Furthermore, you may need to distinguish the difference between "sovereign state" and "government". There are not two separate sovereign states but only two Chinese governments: the ROC government and the PRC government. These two governments each claims itself as the solely legitimate government of China. This is where the "China representative issue" came from.

Simply put, in terms of legal status of Taiwan, Taiwan (and Penghu) is administered by the ROC government under the Allied Powers' post war military occupation arrangement since 1945. The ROC government is a Chinese regime fleeing to Taiwan in 1949 after losing China civil war. Taiwan is not a sovereign state "yet" but a territory managed by a Chinese regime (i.e. the ROC) but the governing regime doesn't have its territorial sovereignty.

Please don't confuse the ROC with Taiwan. If you consider Taiwan and the ROC interchangeable, you literally say Taiwan is, or is part of, China.

Anyway, although I do appreciate your love to Taiwan, your understanding about the legal status of Taiwan is seriously flawed and the way you combined Taiwan with the Republic of China actually told people that Taiwan is part of China, only that the China here is not that widely recognized "China" (i.e. PRC).

Yes, I did know that the "China" you foreigers mentioned pointed to the PRC.

I simply wanted to tell you the danger of claiming that the ROC owns the sovereignty of Taiwan.

Due to the legal nature of "Chinese regime" of the ROC and PRC governments, and the fact that most sovereign states of the world consider that the PRC government has had succeeded the ROC government as the solely legitimate China government, if you consider Taiwan=ROC or the ROC owns Taiwan sovereignty, from legal aspect, it actually means that the PRC owns Taiwan sovereignty: because the PRC regime as the successor of the ROC would have gotten everything owned by the ROC, including Taiwan sovereignty.

That's why the San Francisco Peace Treaty is so important. As you may figure out from the website provided, the arrangement in the SFPT superseded all previous war-time arrangement including the Cairo Communique and the Potsdam Declaration. Consequently, while it was explicitly expressed in the Cairo Communique that Japan shall return Taiwan and Penghu to the ROC when Japan lost the war, the Allied Powers changed their mind after the ROC lost China civil war and refrained from giving the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan to the ROC.

Taiwan is a place many people love and I know you love Taiwan. You certainly made this out of good intention and wanted to show your support to Taiwan. Nevertheless, sometimes actions out of good intention actually end in harm.

Finally, I would suggest you to spend some time to check the materials on this website and reconstruct your understanding about Taiwan legal status.

please feel free to contact me, I will do my best to give and explain related information to ensure a work faithful to the history and correct in terms of international law.

[aaryanshrestha]

India will recognise ROC in near future I guess

[thatdutchguy]

And it went from having recognised relationships with 30 to 20 countries in a single decade by Chinese foreign policy.

[ech]

I think of taiwan as the second china theres the mainland china and tiawan china

[sanjussingh]

I
Didn't understand Taiwan is a country
So why it is called Republic of China

Can anyone please tell

[mackycabangon]

Wow no chinese dislikes... oh wait! China cant access YouTube! The Kosovo episode has 73 likes ans 73 dislikes