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Supporters of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian cheer during a rally in Taichung, Taiwan, Sunday, March 14, 2004. Chen and opposition candidate Lien Chan are locked in a tight race ahead of the March 20, 2004, elections. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
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INDEPTH: TAIWAN
Taiwan
CBC News Online | April 29, 2005
When Portuguese sailors landed on the island of Taiwan in 1517, they named it Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island). The Dutch invaded just over a century later, lost the island briefly to Spain, and then regained and kept it until the 1660s, when they lost it for good to the Ming and Manchu dynasties.
The two dynasties then fought each other for control until the Manchus emerged as victors. The Manchus made Taiwan a county of Fujian province and Chinese immigrants flooded the island.
In 1895, Japan took control of Taiwan after China was defeated in the Sino-Japanese war. But China reclaimed the island after Japan's defeat at the end of The Second World War.
When the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, with Communist forces taking control of China, President Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist party, the Kuomintang (KMT), fled to Taiwan.
An estimated 1.5 million to two million Chinese followed Chiang to Taiwan. Today, the leaders of both mainland China and Taiwan claim to be the rightful rulers of China.
Most countries have chosen to side with the larger and more powerful Communist mainland China. Beijing considers Taiwan a part of its territory waiting to be reunified, by force if necessary.
In 1975, Chiang died and was replaced by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, sparking criticism among Taiwanese of the one-party system of government. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive party was formed in opposition to Chiang Ching-kuo and was granted seats in the legislature. When Chiang Ching-kuo died two years later, he was replaced by the first native-born president, Lee Teng-hui.
Taiwan's tense relationship with mainland China worsened when Lee visited the United States in 1995. China responded with military exercises near the Taiwanese coast and the U.S. sent warships to monitor the situation.
In 1996, Lee was returned to office as the island's first popularly elected president. He was replaced in 2000 by the Democratic Progressive party's candidate, Chen Shui-bian, whose election alarmed China because of his party's official stance that Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China.
The party's website states that "China's unilateral advocacy of the One China principle and One Country, Two Systems is fundamentally inappropriate for Taiwan," and that "Taiwan should renounce the One Republic of China position to avoid international confusion and to prevent China from using the principle as a pretext for forceful annexation."
Chen was narrowly re-elected in 2004.
In 2005, Beijing announced its plan to pass legislation mandating a military attack by China against the island of 23 million if it openly declares its independence.
The proposed law, it said, was sparked by Chen's plan to hold a referendum on a new constitution for the island. Chinese officials are concerned it could include a declaration of independence.
Opinion polls have shown that around three-quarters of Taiwanese oppose the law, fearing it could provide the legal justification for an invasion of the island.
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