Taiwan

Since its establishment in 1949 the RoC has been facing a serious threat for its security from the PRC, but the defence budget of the country has not till 2019 been remarkable increased as a percentage of the real GDP of the country. In 2008 the defence budget represented 2.6% of the real GDP of the country and within ten years, in 2018 it was reduced to 1.8% of the real GDP. During the two terms of President Ma the defence budget never exceeded the US$10.8 Billion threshold. When President Ma was elected in 2008 the defence budget of the RoC was US$10.8 Billion. 

In 2009 and in 2010, the defence budget was reduced to US$9.6 Billion and US$9.4 Billion respectively. The following five years of Ma’s presidency, the RoC defence budget was marginally increased and stabilised just above US$10 Billion, except for the year 2012 when it reached US$10.7 Billion. In 2016 when the new President was elected the defence budget was US$9.9 Billion. The following three years the defence budget was marginally increased. In 2017 it was US$10.6 Billion, in 2018 it was US$10.7 Billion and in 2019 it reached US$10.84 Billion. In 2019 the Government of President Tsai decided to increase the defence budget of 2020 by US$558 Million over the 2019 budget.

General Information

The Republic of China (RoC) is an island state in the western Pacific Ocean, roughly 79 nautical miles at its narrowest off the coast of southeastern People’s Republic of China (PRC). The RoC is a representative democratic republic with a multi-party system, whereby the elected by popular vote President is the head of state and the Prime Minister who is appointed by the president, is the head of government.

The RoC has jurisdiction over the island of Taiwan and several other smaller islands after the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when its governing party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) lost the control over mainland China from the Communists led by Mao Zedong and retreating to Taiwan island. The Communists declared the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the successor state of the Republic of China (RoC), while the Nationalists on Taiwan struggled to enforce internationally the existence of the Republic of China as the sole legitimate Chinese government. Since then the two countries were engaged to two military confrontations. The first one began on 3rd of September 1954 and lasted till March 1955 and the second started on 23rd of August 1958 and lasted till the 25th of October 1958.

The PRC regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has declared that it will never accept a possible declaration of independence from the island state although the last 20 years has developed prosperous for both sides, economic relations.  On the other hand, Taiwan will never accept to be under the rule of Beijing over its territories and since 1950’s has been preparing its armed forces to deter and repulse any possible invasion by the People’s Republic of China Armed Forces.   

Geography

The RoC has jurisdiction over the island of Taiwan which is the largest island and the main component of whole RoC governing territories, over 22 islands and islets which belong to the Taiwan-island group and 64 island and islets to the west in the P’eng-hu archipelago, as well as the Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, Dongsha (Pratas), Nansha (Spratly) group of islands.  The Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu group of islands lie just off the coast of PRC far away from the coasts of the island of Taiwan.

Taiwan is bounded to the north and northeast by the East China Sea, to the east the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and to the south is the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines. To the west is the Taiwan Strait separates Taiwan from the PRC.  The total surface area of the RoC including the group of islands Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu Dongsha (Pratas), Nansha (Spratly) is 36,197.07 km2. The total surface area of the island of Taiwan is 35,807.82 km2. The island is approximately 395 km long (north-south) 145 km across at its widest point and has a coastline of 1,566.3 km. The RoC claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of 83,231 km2 and a territorial sea of 12 nmi.

One third of the total surface of Taiwan located at the west side of the island, is consisted of terraced tablelands and alluvial plains, while the rest two thirds of the surface of the island is covered by mountains.There are five rugged long mountain ranges parallel to the east coast with several dozen peaks near or above 3,000 meters with the highest being Yu (Jade) Mountain, which rises to 3,997 meters. Taiwan lies on the Tropical of Cancer and its general climate is marine tropical with abundant precipitation throughout the year, about 2,590 mm annually. The northern and central regions of the island are subtropical, while the south is tropical, and the mountainous regions are temperate.

The Ethnic Groups of the Population of Taiwan

The first inhabitants of the island arrived in Taiwan 10.000 years ago from Southeastern Asia and from southern China. The next wave of people to migrate to Taiwan was during the 14th – 17th century. These were the Hoklo (Fukien Taiwanese) and the Hakka that originated from the Fukien and Kuangtung provinces of mainland China respectively.

In 2003 the Hoklo (Fukien Taiwanese) were the majority ethnic group in Taiwan, making up about 65% of the population and the Hakka comprised about 15%. Finally, the fourth group of people that comprise the population of the island are the more than 2 million Chinese who came from mainland China during 1940s.

These people were soldiers and members of Kuomintang political party, as well as the intellectual and business elites of mainland China. These groups of Chinese represented in 2003 the 14% of the total population of the island. The total population of the Republic of China at the end of 2021 was 23,375,000 people (Males: 11,579,000, Female: 11,797,000) and the population density was 645.7 persons per km2.

The life expectancy of the population of Taiwan in 2020 for the Male population was 78.11 years and for the Female population 84.75 years.

The biggest in population cities of RoC in 2014 were: New Taipei City (3,974,911 population), Kaohsiung City (2,778,992 population), Taipei City (2,696,316 population), Taichung City (2,759,887 population), Taoyuan City (2,136,702 population), Tainan City (1,885,499 population).

Foreign Relations of the RoC

The Republic of China (ROC), referred to by many States as "Taiwan", is recognized by 14 out of 193 United Nations member States and maintains unofficial relations with 57 UN member States via its representative offices and consulates. These relations are not inter-governmental nor are they officially diplomatic or political. Between 1950-1971 the RoC held a seat at the UN General Assembly, but on 25th of October 1971 the General Assembly passed the Resolution 2758.  

According to this Resolution, the General Assembly recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and removed the collective representatives of Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China from the United Nations.  Since then, the RoC lost its membership in all the intergovernmental organisations related to the UN, but decades later in 2002 became member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as “Chinese-Taipei”, member of the Asian Development Bank as “Taipei, China”, and member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) as “Chinese-Taipei”.