Taiwan [ ta ɪ van, ta ɪ van, ta ɪ va ː n], officially Chinese Chunghua Minkuo [t ʃ u ŋ HWA], Republic of China , Republic of China , State (recognized by only a few countries) in East Asia with (2020) 23.6 million residents; The capital is Taipei.
Taiwan comprises the main island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa), which is separated from mainland China by the Taiwan Strait (Formosa Strait), the Pescadores , several small islands and immediately off the mainland Quemoy with minor islands and the Matsu Islands. Taiwan also claims the Spratly Islands.
More than 2,000 people lost their lives in the violent earthquake in Taiwan in the 20th century (magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale) on the night of September 20th to 21st, 1999 with the epicenter 150 km southwest of Taipei.
The presidential elections on March 18, 2000 won Chen Shui-bian (Ch’en Shui-pien ; DPP) for the first time an opposition candidate; Protests against the GMD leadership that followed led to the resignation of Lee Teng-huis from the party chairmanship, which the defeated presidential candidate Lien Chan took over. When he officially took office on May 20, 2000, President Chen Shui-bian signaled his readiness to negotiate with the People’s Republic of China on the question of the “future one China” on the basis of equality for Taiwan. Chen Shui-bian was appointed to rely on the GMD (which at that time still had a parliamentary majority) to form a government from their ranks in May 2000 Tang Fei (* 1933 ; previously Minister of Defense) as Prime Minister; after his resignation on October 3, 2000, the previous deputy head of government Chang Chun-hsiung (Zhang Zhunxiong, * 1938 , DPP) became his successor.
On November 11, 2001 (one day after the People’s Republic of China), according to youremailverifier, Taiwan became the 144th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) (with effect from January 1, 2002); Taiwan, which is increasingly isolated internationally, succeeded in taking this important foreign trade step when its economy fell into recession in the context of a global economic downturn. In the parliamentary elections on December 1, 2001, the GMD lost its majority for the first time (only 68 seats); the strongest party was now the DPP with 87 seats. On January 21, 2002, the DPP politician Yu Shyi-kun (You Xikun, * 1948) took over the post of Prime Minister. After an attempted assassination on March 19, 2004 on Chen Shui-bian(during an election campaign event in Tainan, at which Vice President Annette Lu was also slightly injured) the incumbent achieved an extremely narrow and controversial lead over the re-running GMD candidate Lien with officially 50.1% of the votes in the presidential election on March 20 Chan ; In addition, with only 45% participation, a referendum (held for the first time in Taiwan) by the president at the same time failed, in which the population was asked whether they wanted firstly to strengthen their defense against the Chinese missiles aimed at the island and secondly to establish an equal dialogue with the People’s Republic China advocate peace and stability.
After heavy protests by the opposition v. a. in Taipei and the Supreme Court accepting a lawsuit against the presidential election result, Chen Shui-bian agreed to a recount of the votes. After he was officially declared the election winner on March 26, 2004, he was sworn in for a further term on May 20, 2004.
In August 2004, four laws of fundamental political importance to Taiwan were passed. First, they regulated the abolition of the National Assembly, which was still constituted in Nanking in 1947, and second, the elevation of the legislative yuan to the status of parliament, whereby the legislative period was extended from three to four years and at the same time the number of members was reduced from 225 to 113. Third, in order to prevent vote buying and voter bribery, the previous one-block system (i.e. one vote for a candidate block) has been replaced by the two-vote mode (i.e. two votes, divided between a direct candidate and a list). Last but not least, fourthly, constitutional amendments should only be possible with a two-thirds majority.
The parliamentary elections on December 11, 2004 were surprisingly won by the opposition group consisting of GMD, People First Party (PFP) and New Party (NP, together 114 of the 225 seats), which campaigned for a cautious rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China. Chen Shui-bian then resigned the chairmanship of the DPP, which together with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which advocated for Taiwan’s independence, received only 101 mandates; Prime Minister was on February 1, 2005 Frank Hsieh (Xie Changting, * 1946; DPP), who resigned after a defeat of his party in the national local elections (December 3, 2005) in January 2006; he was followed by Su Tseng-chang (Su Zhenchang, * 1947; DPP) in office.
The anti-secession law passed shortly beforehand by the PRC, which saw Taiwan – regarded as a “breakaway province” – in the event of a secession (declaration of independence) with the stake “no more peaceful” met with strong criticism (including a mass demonstration in Taipei on March 26, 2005) Means «threatens. In these protests there was still a certain degree of agreement between the government (the forces of the “Green Camp”) and the opposition (the “Blue Camp”). Otherwise, however, both paths led further apart than ever before: While the “Greens” advocated the independence of Taiwan, pleaded for a “Republic of Taiwan” and promoted the ecological movement, the “Blue” stuck to the reunification course and the name “Republic of China” and are more committed to strengthening the economy.