Its neighbours include China (officially the People's Republic of China) to the west,

Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the UN with a population of over 23,500,000.

And it also possesses the largest economy of any state outside of the UN.

The Taiwanese government claims to be the legitimate government of china and the reason

for this goes back to the early 20th century.

Taiwan had been a Chinese colony until 1895 when it was ceded to imperial japan by the

Qing dynasty.

While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC), the government which

still rules Taiwan, was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing

dynasty.

Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan.

However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War, which had stoped because of the war with

japan, led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC

government to Taiwan in 1949.

Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective

area of control since 1949 has been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with

the main island making up 99% of its territory.

As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the

United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its

UN membership.

Since then most nations officially recognise Taiwan as part of the people's republic

of china but unofficially they have embassies and conduct business with Taiwan as if it

was just another country.

The flag of the Republic of China is red with

a navy blue canton bearing a white sun with twelve triangular rays.

In Chinese, the flag is commonly described as Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth to reflect its features.

It was first used in mainland China by the (Kuomintang) KMT, the Chinese Nationalist

Party in 1917 and was made the official flag of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928.

As Taiwan had been under Japanese rule since 1895, the flag began use in Taiwan after the

1945 handover.

The flag is now mostly used within Taiwan and other outlying islands where the ROC relocated

in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

The canton known as "Blue Sky with a White Sun" was created by a revolutionary called

Lu Hao-tung in the late 1800s.

The twelve rays of the white Sun symbolize the twelve months and the twelve traditional

units of time (shichen), which correspond to two modern hours.

A fellow nationalist, Sun Yat-sen, added the "Red Earth" to the flag to signify the blood

of the revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in order to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and

create the ROC.

Together, the three colours of the flag correspond to the Three Principles of the People: Blue

represents nationalism and liberty; White represents democracy and equality; and Red

represents the people's livelihood and community.

Flying of the flag is banned in mainland china and is used as a means of protest against

the PRC government but despite this, the PRC strangely have criticized Taiwan independence

groups for wishing to change or abolish the ROC flag, and has implied that legal steps

to do so would bring a strongly negative reaction from the PRC.

The flag was also recently banned in Cambodia – by Prime Minister Hun Sen in February

2017 who outlawed the display of the ROC flag in Cambodia due to the One-China policy.