Political status of Taiwan

The political status of Taiwan is a longstanding geopolitical subject focusing on the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and its associated islands. The dispute stems from the alleged retrocession of Taiwan from the Empire of Japan to the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945, and the ROC government's retreat from mainland China to Taiwan as the result of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The Taiwan Area since then has become the major territorial base of the ROC and which has exercised state authority there independently. Though never having control of Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led People's Republic of China (PRC) claims it as an inalienable province of China. The PRC's claim is based on the theory of state succession, whereby it deems itself the regime that replaced the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China upon its establishment in 1949, and thus it denies the sovereignty of the ROC in Taiwan under its one China principle. The geopolitical dispute is also a pivotal subject in China–United States relations and China–Japan relations.

The ROC governed mainland China from 1912 until 1949, when it lost control of the mainland due to its defeat by the CCP in the Chinese Civil War. The People's Republic of China was established that year; the effective jurisdiction of the ROC has been limited to Taiwan and its associated islands.^{[citation needed]} Prior to this, Japan's surrender in 1945 ended its colonial rule over Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, which were subsequently placed under the administration of the ROC as agreed by the major Allies of World War II. However, post-war agreements did not clearly define sovereignty over these islands due to the ongoing rivalry between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CCP. The division led to the emergence of two rival governments on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait, each claiming to be the sole legitimate authority over both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The PRC and historically the ROC both officially adhere to the principle of "one China," but fundamentally disagree on who is entitled to represent it. This has resulted in what is known as the "Two Chinas" scenario, reflecting the unresolved dispute over which government is the legitimate representative of China.

The 1991 constitutional amendments and the 1992 Cross-Strait Relations Act marked a pivotal shift, as the ROC ceased actively claiming governance over the mainland, stopped treating the CCP as a rebellious group, and started treating it in practice, as the authority effectively governing mainland China from ROC's perspective, though the ROC constitution still technically includes the mainland as ROC territory. Within Taiwan, there emerged a major political contention between eventual Chinese unification with a pan-Chinese identity contrasted with formal independence promoting a Taiwanese identity, though moderates supporting the status quo have gained broad appeal in the 21st century. From 2000 to 2008 and since 2016, Democratic Progressive Party-led governments of Taiwan have been more autonomist in orientation and do not regard their governments as seeking to represent China, and affirms its position that Taiwan is already a sovereign country in its own right under the name "Republic of China" and not subordinate to the PRC. The PRC has refused to rule out using military force to achieve unification, but it also proposes the "one country, two systems" as a model for a peaceful unification, which has been rejected by successive Taiwanese governments.

The international status of Taiwan is complex, but largely agreed upon. Since 1949, multiple countries have faced a choice between the PRC and the ROC with regard to establishing formal diplomatic relations and shaping their respective "One China" policy. The PRC was initially excluded from the United Nations in favor of the ROC; the PRC gained formal recognition as the only legitimate government of China in 1971, when UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI) was passed. Today, the ROC has formal diplomatic relations with only twelve nations but maintains unofficial bilateral ties with other countries through its representative offices, and membership in international organizations as a non-state entity. According to a Lowy Institute tally in January 2025, about 74 percent (142) of the UN member states explicitly endorse the PRC's position that Taiwan is a part of China. However, 23 of those states do not endorse the one-China principle, while others merely acknowledge or respect rather than recognize the PRC position.

Taiwan (excluding Penghu) was first populated by Austronesian people. Chinese people started settling in southern Taiwan by the late 16th century. ^{[citation needed]} The island was partially colonized by the Dutch who arrived in 1623. The Dutch colony was ousted by the Kingdom of Tungning, which lasted from 1661 to 1683, and was the first ethnic Han government to rule part of the island of Taiwan. From 1683, the Qing dynasty ruled much of the western plains of the island as a prefecture and in 1875 divided the island into two prefectures, Taiwan and Taipeh. In 1887 the island was made into a separate province to speed up development in this region. In the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan and Penghu were ceded by the Qing dynasty to Japan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Qing dynasty fell in 1912, leaving warlords to compete for power and influence in China. The country became more unified during the Nanjing decade, and growing calls to push back against Japanese aggression led to the formation of the Second United Front before the Second Sino-Japanese War.

ROC leaders such as Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek had expressed support for Korea's, Vietnam's, and Taiwan's independence from Japan.

It is the immediate task of China to regain all our lost territories[...] [w]e do not, however, include Korea, formerly a Chinese colony, [...] and if the Koreans wish to break away from the chains of Japanese imperialism, we will extend them our enthusiastic help in their struggle for independence. The same thing applies for Formosa.

Academics Frank S. T. Hsiao and Lawrence R. Sullivan wrote in 1979, "between 1928 and 1943 Communist Party leaders consistently recognized the Taiwanese" as a "distinct" minzu, a term that can refer to people, nation, nationality, race, or ethnic group. Hsiao and Sullivan theorized that the CCP "believe[d] that the long dissociation of Taiwan from the Chinese state had had a fundamental impact on the Taiwan people's nationality",. Hsiao and Sullivan wrote that "[i]n Mao's eyes Taiwan was neither an integral part of Japan, nor sovereign Chinese territory, but, like Korea, a colony of Japan striving for an independent determination of its political future", and quoted Chen Shaoyu's 1938 listing of Taiwan and Korea among the "national liberation movements (minzujiefangyundong)" by "weak and small nationalities under the oppression of Japanese imperialism". Hsiao and Sullivan additionally wrote that "[t]he CCP Central Committee seemingly accepted Mao's and Chen's views". Quoting Zhou Enlai's 1941 statement that "we should sympathize with independence-liberation movements (duli jiefang yundong) of other nation-states (minzu guojia)", Hsiao and Sullivan argued that Zhou "included the Taiwan anti-Japanese movement in the larger anti-colonial, national liberation struggles sweeping the oppressed peoples of the Western colonial empires - a position [Zhou] was to popularize in 1955 at the Bandung, Indonesia conference, but with the exclusion of Taiwan."