Taiwan is an island country which is located off the southeast coast of China between the Taiwan Strait and the Philippine Sea. It has a land area of about 32,000square kilometers, and claims another 3,700 square kilometers of sea around it, giving itclose to a total of 36,000 square kilometers for itself. The land of Taiwan consists mainlyof mountainous terrain in the east while the west has flat plains which can be compared tothe middle central part of the United States. The country has a population of about 22million people in which 9.7 million of those people are part of the labor force. Some ofthe groups that make up this population include native Taiwanese (which includes Hakka,the originals of the land), mainland Chinese, and aborigines. Taiwan is one of the majoreconomic powers of East Asia. Taiwan is a truly capitalistic economy in an area wherecommunism has played a major role in the world over the last 50 years. The GDP hasbeen growing at a rate of about 8 percent per year over the last few years. Services makeup more than half of Taiwans GDP, while industry and agriculture combine to make upthe for the rest of the GDP. Manufacturing is mainly in electronics and machinery, whichare among Taiwans major exports. (CIA World Factbook, 2000) Although Taiwan has been a major economic success, its political situation is stillmore remarkable. Within the last 50 years, sweeping changes have embraced the politicalarena. It was up until World War II that Taiwan was under the control of Japan, anarrangement which resulted from the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. (Rigger 34, 1999) However in 1945, at the end of the war, Taiwan was given back to China as part ofJapans punishment. The Taiwanese, excited by the fact that once again they were to bereunited in a way, with the mainland China. What had happened however was vastlydifferent from what was expected. The Kuomuntang (KMT) or the Nationalist partyhad set foot in Taiwan ...
