Echopedia

Wikipedia (en): Taiwan

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Wikipedia (en): Taiwan

Source page for the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan article — the general-reference comparator for Taiwan’s status stack. Note: unlike most Taiwan-linked subjects (where zh.wp is the comparator), for the country article itself en.wp is the more useful comparator — its lead states the contested point plainly.

Key facts archived

  • Lead: “Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia” — the encyclopedia formulation the CCP objection targets; en.wp footnotes the naming conventions ([I][k] notes) rather than hedging the noun.
  • Territory: main island + Penghu/Kinmen/Matsu — 168 islands, 36,197 km² under ROC control; mountains dominate the east two-thirds; population concentrated in the urbanized west.
  • Deep history: settled ≥25,000 years; indigenous ancestors ~6,000 years ago — Austronesian, pre-Han; the name “Taiwan” derives from the Siraya language (Dutch “Tayouan” post at Anping, 1624) — the island’s name is indigenous, not Chinese, at its etymological root.
  • Successive polities (the “China” row of our identity table, stated neutrally): Dutch 1624–62 → Zheng/Kingdom of Tungning (first predominantly-Han state) → Qing annexation 1683 (province 1887) → ceded to Japan 1895 (Republic of Formosa proclaimed 25 May 1895, crushed 21 Oct) → ROC control from 25 Oct 1945 → ROC government retreated 7 Dec 1949.
  • Japanese era figures: ~6,000 dead in the 1895 conquest, ~14,000 first year, 12,000 “bandit-rebels” 1898–1902; 1936+ assimilation campaign (temples −⅓ by 1940, kaiseimei); 309,000 Japanese residents by 1938; 200,000+ Taiwanese in Japanese military service, 30,000+ casualties; 2,000+ comfort women.
  • Post-1949 arc: Taiwan Miracle growth from the 1960s; martial law 1949–1987; multi-party democracy by the early 1990s; directly elected presidents from 1996.
  • Development metrics (as archived): nominal GDP 21st; GDP/pp $42,103 (30th); HDI 0.934 — 21st, “very high”; top-tier civil liberties/healthcare rankings. These are the “functionally sovereign society” numbers the counter stack cites.
  • ISO 3166 code TW; TLDs .tw/.台灣/.台湾 — the state-system treats Taiwan as a distinct entity below the UN-seat level.

Comparison note for our pages

en.wp’s neutral “is a country” lead vs the PRC white paper’s “never been a state” (see scio-taiwan-white-paper-2022) is itself the record of the dispute: the general reference now resolves the noun; Beijing’s document resolves the opposite way. Both are citable; only one requires the islanders’ consent as a missing premise.

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