After losing the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government retreated to the island of Taiwan where it relocated the Republic of China (ROC) regime, while CCP established the People's Republic of China (PRC). ROC remains Taiwan's official name. 

However, prior to that, Taiwan was inhabited by Austronesian indigenous peoples for thousands of years, as well as immigrants from China who had come hundreds of years earlier. Taiwan also experienced Dutch and Japanese colonization. 

Beijing claims Taiwan as a breakaway province and has long threatened to use force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan's democratically elected president has rejected Beijing's assertion that its laws apply to Taiwan. 

Taiwan has been a self-governing territory since 1949, maintaining own government, military, legal systems, and became a democracy in the 1990s, while facing ongoing military pressure from Beijing. Nowadays, the vast majority of Taiwanese people identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese. 

Correction, October 14, 2026: A previous version of this text said Taiwan has been a democracy since 1949. This has now been corrected. We apologize for the error.