Does China own Taiwan?
China’s ruling communist party claims the self-governed island of Taiwan as its own territory, despite never having exercised control over Taiwan.
Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
On 25 October 1945, Japan surrendered Taiwan to the Republic of China (ROC), in the Treaty of San Francisco.
Following the Communist takeover of mainland China and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in late 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan.
The communists did not follow.
Most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s.
From the late 1970s to the 1990s, Taiwan underwent political and social reforms that transformed it into a democracy.
The Chinese communist government has never exercised control over Taiwan.
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