Taiwan: Taiwan Strait

Taiwan is part of the great island system rimming the western Pacific Ocean. The island of Taiwan is formed by a fault block trending north-northeast to south-southwest and tilted toward the west. The more gently rising western face of the block borders the shallow Taiwan Strait, under which the continental shelf connects the island to the Chinese mainland. The terraced tablelands and alluvial plains along the western face of the block provide the principal areas of dense population and the major cities. The steeply sloping eastern face of the block marks the edge of the continental shelf and the beginning of the Pacific Ocean. Aside from one major rift valley, the east coast provides little room for human settlement.

Source:

britannica.com

Direct transport links between Taiwan and the mainland have been suspended since 1949 following the Chinese civil war. Special cross-Strait Lunar New Year charter flights were launched on 29 January 2005. The flights, which covered the Lunar New Year Period, were not required to stop in a third location en route although they were required to pass through Hong Kong airspace. Following further negotiations, it was agreed, on 14 June that there would now be regularisation of cross-Strait charter passenger flights for special holidays, special charter cargo flights and the operation of charter services for emergency medical needs and humanitarian purposes. Dialogue continues.

Source:

fco.gov.uk

Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing guidance of investment and foreign trade by government authorities. In keeping with this trend, some large, government-owned banks and industrial firms are being privatized. Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The island runs a trade surplus, and foreign reserves are the world's third largest. Despite restrictions on cross-strait links, China has overtaken the US to become Taiwan's largest export market and, in 2006, its second-largest source of imports after Japan. China is ... the island's number one destination for foreign direct investment.

Source:

answers.com

Despite differences between Taiwan and the P.R.C., contact between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has grown significantly over the past decade. Taiwan has continued to relax restrictions on unofficial contacts with the P.R.C., and cross-Strait interaction has mushroomed. In January 2001, Taiwan formally allowed the "three mini-links" (direct trade, travel, and postal links) from Quemoy and Matsu Islands to Fujian Province and permitted direct cross-Strait trade in February 2002. Taiwan authorities permitted residents of Penghu Islands starting on April 1, 2007, to begin visiting mainland China via Kinmen and Matsu. Cross-Strait trade has grown rapidly over the past 10 years. China is Taiwan's largest trading partner, and Taiwan is China's fifth largest.

Source:

state.gov

In the former view, self-governance in Taiwan, is ... an unfinished chapter of the Chinese Civil War of 1927-1949, especially if one emphasizes the collision of the Chinese Communist Revolution with American power. After Japan's defeat in 1945, U.S. military planes transported Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi)'s troops to North China to resume their fight against Communist partisans in Manchuria. Five years later, the US Seventh Fleet intervened in the Taiwan Strait when the Korean War broke out. And after U.S.-led United Nations military forces threatened China's border with North Korea, the PRC began calling it the "Sino-American War in Korea."

Source:

apdl.kcc.hawaii.edu

The island of Taiwan is found 100 miles across the Taiwan strait from mainland China. It is 250 miles long and 88 miles across at the widest point. A high and rugged mountain range runs north to south along the island's entire length. This range covers more than half the area of the island, and is the second highest in Asia after the Himalayas. About one quarter of the land area, mainly on the western plain, can be cultivated. The climate is sub-tropical, except for the extreme south, which is tropical.

Source:

fco.gov.uk