Source: TOI
Subject: Mapping
Context: A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Taiwan shaking buildings in Taipei and other cities, though no major damage was reported.
About Taiwan:
What it is?
- Taiwan is an island in the western Pacific Ocean, officially governed as the Republic of China (ROC), with its own elected government, economy, and armed forces.
- It functions as a self-administered polity, though its sovereignty status remains contested internationally.
Location:
- Situated about 160 km off the southeastern coast of China, separated by the Taiwan (Formosa) Strait.
- Lies between the East China Sea (north) and the South China Sea (south), facing the Pacific Ocean to the east.
Capital: Taipei.
Neighbouring countries:
- China to the west (across the Taiwan Strait).
- Japan (Ryukyu Islands) to the northeast.
- Philippines to the south, across the Bashi Channel.
- Surrounded by strategically contested waters in the East and South China Seas.
Brief history:
- Prior to the 17th century, Taiwan had indigenous self-governing communities with no central authority.
- Colonised by the Dutch (17th century), later ruled by Qing China for nearly two centuries.
- Became a Japanese colony (1895–1945) after the First Sino-Japanese War.
- In 1949, after the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist government (Kuomintang) retreated to Taiwan following defeat by the Communists on the mainland.
- Since then, Taiwan has remained politically separate from the People’s Republic of China, which claims it under the One-China policy.
Geological features:
- Lies at the convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate, making it one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions.
- Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most seismically active zone globally.
- Dominated by the Central Mountain Range, with over two-thirds of the island being mountainous.
- Home to Yu (Jade) Mountain, the highest peak in East Asia (3,997 m).
