The "Republic of Taiwan" (ROT, ; Pe̍h-oē-jī: ''Tâi-oân Kiōng-hô-kok'') means a proposed republican state that claims independence sovereignty based on the

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

Taiwanese people Taiwanese people are the Taiwanese nationality law, citizens and nationals of the Republic of China (ROC) and those who reside in an Overseas Taiwanese, overseas diaspora from the entire Taiwan Area. The term also refers to natives or inhabitan ...

. It is closely related to the

Taiwan independence movement The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations. Into the 21st- ...

in a radical or narrow sense, and should be distinguished from '' Huadu'', means Republic of China independence. The "Republic of Taiwan" was advocated and circulated among Taiwan independence activists in the second half of the 1920s during the

Taiwan under Japanese rule The Geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu, Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan Province, Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki a ...

. After the end of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Island of Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

was taken over by the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

(ROC), and after the impact of the

February 28 incident The February 28 incident (also called the February 28 massacre, the 228 incident, or the 228 massacre) was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang–led nationalist government of the R ...

, Taiwan independence activists centered on Taiwanese Thomas Liao founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of Taiwan (台灣共和國臨時政府) in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan.

History

Since the period of Japanese rule, the establishment of the "Republic of Taiwan" has been one of the main demands of the Taiwanese independents. The independence movement in Taiwan can be traced back to the defeat in the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

, when the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

ceded Taiwan and

Penghu The Penghu ( , Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, about west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Ch ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and the people of Taiwan at that time established the "

Republic of Formosa The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its being taken over by ...

" on May 25, 1895, to resist the Japanese army. Establishment of the Republic of Taiwan became an important demand of the Taiwanese Communist Party during the period of Japanese rule as a way to break away from Japanese rule and for national liberation. Much of the movement related to Taiwan's independence began with the Taiwanese Communist Party during the Japanese occupation. In the post-war Taiwan independence movement after the February 28th Incident, there were also those who advocated the establishment of the Republic of Taiwan, such as the Provisional Government of the Republic of Taiwan formed by Thomas Liao and others in 1956, and the World United Formosans for Independence established in 1970.

National flag and anthem

No specific agreement has been reached on the flag, national anthem, and national coat of arms of the Republic of Taiwan. Since the 1980s, several of the various versions of the "Taiwan Constitution" proposed by the private sector have been referred to as "the national flag, national coat of arms, and national anthem are determined by law". In April 1993, created the song " Taiwan the Formosa" and submitted the lyrics to a musician living in Los Angeles,

Tyzen Hsiao Tyzen Hsiao (; 1 January 1938 – 24 February 2015) was a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese composer of the neo-Romantic school. Many of his vocal works set poems written in Taiwanese Hokkien, the mother tongue of the majority of the island's res ...

, who composed the lyrics and completed the score in October of the same year. The song was released in the early summer of 1994, and in order to meet the needs of various ethnic groups around the world, in addition to the

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien ( , ), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taigi ( zh, c=臺語, tl=Tâi-gí), Taiwanese Southern Min ( zh, c=臺灣閩南語, tl=Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively ...

version, it was translated into six other languages, including Amis,

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

, Chinese, English, and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. File:Flag of WTC.svg, Flag of the World Taiwanese Congress File:Flag of Taiwan proposed 1996.svg, A proposed flag for an independent Taiwan designed by Donald Liu in 1996 File:Proposed flag of Taiwan the Formosa.svg, Flag of Taiwan the Formosa, designed by Chih-Hao Chen (陳致豪) In the Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign, the more commonly used name is "Republic of Taiwan". In various versions of the Taiwan Constitution, the country's name is often "Taiwan" or "Republic of Taiwan". There is also an example of Li Xianrong (李宪荣) using "Democratic Republic of Taiwan" (台湾民主国). Since ROT, an abbreviation for the Republic of Taiwan, means

decomposition Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...

of organic matter in English, some activists have proposed different names. The proposed names include: "People's State of Taiwan" (台灣民國), "State of Taiwan" (台灣國), "Democratic Republic of Taiwan" (台灣民主共和國), and "Chinese Republic of Taiwan" (中華台灣共和國).

Territory

Currently, the territory under the actual control of the Republic of China is the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), only east from the city of Xiamen in Fujian, located at the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, from wh ...

, Matsu and some minor islands, with the island of Taiwan as the main body. Among them, the Kinmen, Matsu and some minor islands are "overseas islands" that traditionally do not belong to Taiwan. (Only Taiwan and Penghu belong to the '

Taiwan Province Taiwan Province ( zh, t=臺灣省 , p=Táiwān Shěng , poj=Tâi-oân-séng; PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a ''de jure'' administrative division of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Provinces remain a titular division as ...

', even under the current administrative district of the Republic of China.) For these reasons, how the territory of "Republic of Taiwan" should be defined is controversial. While some proponents of independence argue that the ROC's effective controlling territory should be inherited, others argue that areas other than Taiwan and Penghu are not "Republic of Taiwan" territory.

Use in a foreign

In April 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed Taiwan to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as “Taipei, Republic of China,” but also used the phrase "Republic of Taiwan". On Jan. 11, 2017,

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

's President

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

invited then-Taiwan President

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

to his inauguration, referring to Taiwan as the "Republic of Taiwan" (República de Taiwán) rather than the "Republic of China" (República de China). When the

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

's government president or his officials visited Taiwan (2016) and other international events, the term "Republic of Taiwan" was often used. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

used the term "Republic of Taiwan" to refer to Taiwan before it broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan on August 21, 2018.

References

{{reflist * Proposed countries

History

National flag and anthem

Territory

Use in a foreign

See also

References