Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the territories governed by the Republic of China (ROC) and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island in the Pacific off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands off the coast of mainland China's Fujian Province. The Kuomintang (KMT) party lost its control of mainland China to Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil war and moved its government to the island of Taiwan in 1949 which it had acquired control of from Japan in 1945. The island groups of Taiwan and Penghu (except the municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung) are officially administered as Taiwan Province of the ROC. However, in practice, almost all government power is exercised at the national and local (city/county) levels.The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims Taiwan as its province although the PRC has never controlled Taiwan or any of the current ROC territory commonly referred to as "Taiwan". The PRC claims that Taiwan has been a part of China for hundreds of years. In 1895, Japan took over control of Taiwan following its military defeat of China in First Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan again came under Chinese control after Japan surrendered to the ROC subsequent to Japan's military defeat in World War II. ROC was the de facto government of China. The PRC considers itself the successor of the ROC and therefore entitled to all ROC holdings, including Taiwan.
The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa (from Portuguese (Ilha) Formosa, meaning "beautiful (island)"), is located in East Asia off the coast of mainland China, southwest of the main islands of Japan but directly west of the end of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, and north-northwest of the Philippines. It is bound to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and the Luzon Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait and to the north by the East China Sea. The island is 394 kilometers (245 miles) long and 144 kilometers (89 miles) wide and consists of steep mountains covered by tropical and subtropical vegetation.
