I am going to share with the world about the history of my country Taiwan.

Those who have a clear documentary record and can verify the time point can be traced back to three articles written in July 1582 when two Spanish priests and a Portuguese Jesuit were stranded in Taiwan for 75 days due to wind. Taiwan’s letter history began approximately when the Dutch East India Company began its rule in 1624.  However, human activities have already existed in Taiwan before it was recorded in the literature.  The Changbin culture in Taitung 30,000 years ago is the oldest culture in Taiwan known to archaeology, and there are archaeological relics of the Austronesian people in the more recent Neolithic Age.  In fact, Taiwan is also considered to be one of the possible linguistic and genetic birthplaces of the Austronesian peoples due to its location in the northernmost part of the Austronesian language group, and it is also the northernmost of the distribution area.

Taiwan is located between China, Japan and Southeast Asia, and can be used as a berthing and cargo transfer station for ships of various countries.  In the 17th century, there was a super-tribal Dadu Kingdom in central Taiwan, while the Netherlands and Spain colonized the southwest and northwest of Taiwan respectively.  The Dutch expelled the Spanish and ruled most of western Taiwan.  In April 1661, Zheng Chenggong led 25,000 troops and hundreds of warships to besiege the city of Relanzhe, the capital of the Netherlands and Taiwan. The Netherlands signed a surrender on February 1, 1662. Taiwan entered the Ming and Zheng period, during which a large number of Han people emigrated to Taiwan.  In 1683, Ming Zheng Jiangqing general Shi Lang led the Qing army to attack Taiwan, King of Tywan Zheng Keyu surrendered, and Taiwan entered the Qing Dynasty.

In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War between the Qing Dynasty and Japan broke out. The following year, the two sides signed the Shimonoseki Treaty in Shimonoseki, ceding Taiwan to Japan, and Taiwan entered the Japanese rule.

The Second World War ended in 1945, and Japan was defeated.  Japan accepted the Allies’ “Potsdam Declaration” in the “Submission Instrument” and the “Cairo Declaration” in the Potsdam Declaration. The “Cairo Declaration” required Taiwan, Penghu, and Manchuria to be returned to the Republic of China.  On September 2, 1945, Marshal MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, issued the “General Order No. 1”, ordering the Japanese forces in China (except Manchuria), Taiwan and Vietnam north of the 16th latitude to surrender to Jiang Zhongzheng, who represents the Allied Powers.  It also ordered Japan and Japan-controlled military and civilian regimes to assist the Allies in occupying Japan and Japan-controlled areas.  After Chiang Kai-shek appointed General Chen Yi to accept the surrender of the Japanese troops in Taiwan, he then unilaterally announced the restoration of Taiwan.  The United States and the United Kingdom and other allies disagreed with the unilateral announcement of the restoration of sovereignty over Taiwan by the Republic of China, and stated that the handling of Taiwan’s sovereignty must wait for a peace treaty with Japan to be decided.  Japan also stated that the “Submission Instrument” that accepted the “Potsdam Declaration” and “Cairo Declaration” only has the nature of a truce agreement, not the nature of the disposition of territories. It was not until the 1952 “San Francisco Peace Treaty” came into force that Taiwan did not  Leaving Japan.  In the “San Francisco Peace Treaty”, Japan only declared to abandon Taiwan without indicating its ownership. The ownership of Taiwan must be decided by the Allies in the future.

In April 1949, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army crossed the river during the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, fell. On December 7, the government moved to Taiwan.  Since 1991, citizens of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu have elected all the seats of the Republic of China Congress since 1991; since 1996, the President of the Republic of China has been directly elected.  However, those who believe that the Republic of China is illegal in Taiwan, according to international law, argue that the government of the Republic of China cannot be legalized in Taiwan through elections.  The government of the People’s Republic of China, which has never ruled Taiwan, claims its sovereignty.  In addition, Taiwan’s status in international law is also one of the reasons for sovereignty disputes and the Taiwan independence movement.