Country name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form:
Taiwan
local long form:
none
local short form:
Taiwan
former:
Formosa
Government type:
multiparty democracy
Capital:
name: Taipei
geographic coordinates:
25 02 N, 121 31 E
time difference:
UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions:
includes main island of Taiwan plus smaller islands nearby and off coast of China's Fujian Province; Taiwan is divided into 14 counties (hsien, singular and plural), 3 municipalities (shih, singular and plural), and 5 special municipalities (chih-hsia-shih, singular and plural)
note:
Taiwan uses a variety of romanization systems; while a modified Wade-Giles system still dominates, the city of Taipei has adopted a Pinyin romanization for street and place names within its boundaries; other local authorities use different romanization systems; names for administrative divisions that follow are taken from the Taiwan Yearbook 2007 published by the Government Information Office in Taipei.
counties:
Changhua, Chiayi (county), Hsinchu (county), Hualien, Kinmen, Lienchiang, Miaoli, Nantou, Penghu, Pingtung, Taitung, Taoyuan, Yilan, Yunlin
municipalities:
Chiayi (city), Hsinchu (city), Keelung (city)
special municipalities:
Kaohsiung (city), New Taipei (city), Taichung (city), Tainan (city), Taipei (city)
National holiday:
Republic Day (Anniversary of the Chinese Revolution), 10 October (1911)
Constitution:
previous 1912, 1931; latest adopted 25 December 1946, promulgated 1 January 1947, effective 25 December 1947; revised several times, last in 2005 (2013)
Legal system:
civil law system
International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICCt
Suffrage:
20 years of age; universal
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]
Executive branch:
chief of state: President MA Ying-jeou (since 20 May 2008); Vice President WU Den-yih (since 20 May 2012)
head of government:
Premier JIANG Yi-huah (President of the Executive Yuan) (since 18 February 2013); Vice Premier MAO Chi-kuo (Vice President of the Executive Yuan) (since 18 February 2013)
cabinet:
Executive Yuan - ministers appointed by president on recommendation of premier
elections:
president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term); election last held on 14 January 2012 (next to be held in January 2016); premier appointed by the president; vice premiers appointed by the president on the recommendation of the premier
election results:
MA Ying-jeou elected president; percent of vote - MA Ying-jeou 51.6%, TSAI Ing-wen 45.6%, James SOONG Chu-ye 2.8%
Legislative branch:
unicameral Legislative Yuan (113 seats - 73 district members elected by popular vote, 34 at-large members elected on basis of proportion of islandwide votes received by participating political parties, 6 elected by popular vote among aboriginal populations; members to serve four-year terms); parties must receive 5% of vote to qualify for at-large seats
elections:
Legislative Yuan - last held on 14 January 2012 (next to be held in January 2016)
election results:
Legislative Yuan - percent of vote by party - KMT 44.6%, DPP 34.6%, TSU 9.0%, PFP 5.5%, others 6.3%; seats by party - KMT 64, DPP 40, PFP 3, TSU 3, NPSU 2, independent 1
Judicial branch:
highest court(s): Supreme Court (consists of the court president, vice president, and approximately 100 judges organized into 8 civil and 12 criminal divisions, each with a division chief justice and 4 associate justices); Constitutional Court (consists of the court president, vice president, and 13 justices)
judge selection and term of office:
both Supreme Court and Constitutional Court justices appointed by the president of the republic with the approval of the Legislative Yuan; Supreme Court justices appointed for life; Constitutional Court president, vice-president, and 8 grand justices serve 4-year terms and remaining justices serve 8-year terms
subordinate courts:
high courts; district courts; hierarchy of administrative courts
Political parties and leaders:
Democratic Progressive Party or DPP [SU Tseng-chang]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
environmental groups
note: debate on Taiwan independence has become acceptable within the mainstream of domestic politics on Taiwan; public opinion polls consistently show a substantial majority of Taiwan people supports maintaining Taiwan's status quo for the foreseeable future; advocates of Taiwan independence oppose the stand that the island will eventually unify with mainland China; advocates of eventual unification predicate their goal on the democratic transformation of the mainland
International organization participation:
ADB, APEC, BCIE, ICC (national committees), IOC, ITUC (NGOs), WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US:
none; commercial and cultural relations with the people in the United States are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), a private nonprofit corporation that performs citizen and consular services similar to those at diplomatic posts
representative:
KING Pu-tsung
office:
4201 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
telephone:
[1] 202 895-1800
Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices (branch offices):
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Guam, Houston, Honolulu, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle
Diplomatic representation from the US:
none; commercial and cultural relations with the people on Taiwan are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private nonprofit corporation that performs citizen and consular services similar to those at diplomatic posts
director:
Christopher J. MARUT
office:
#7 Lane 134, Hsin Yi Road, Section 3, Taipei 106, Taiwan
telephone:
[1] [886] (02) 2162-2000
FAX:
[1] [886] (02) 2162-2251
other offices:
Kaohsiung
Flag description:
red field with a dark blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays; the blue and white design of the canton (symbolizing the sun of progress) dates to 1895; it was later adopted as the flag of the Kuomintang Party; blue signifies liberty, justice, and democracy; red stands for fraternity, sacrifice, and nationalism, white represents equality, frankness, and the people's livelihood; the 12 rays of the sun are those of the months and the twelve traditional Chinese hours (each ray equals two hours)
National symbol(s):
white, 12-rayed sun on blue field
National anthem:
name: "Zhonghua Minguo guoge" (National Anthem of the Republic of China)
lyrics/music:
HU Han-min, TAI Chi-t'ao, and LIAO Chung-k'ai/CHENG Mao-Yun
note:
adopted 1930; the anthem is also the song of the Kuomintang Party; it is informally known as "San Min Chu I" or "San Min Zhu Yi" (Three Principles of the People); because of political pressure from China, "Guo Qi Ge" (National Banner Song) is used at international events rather than the official anthem of Taiwan; the "National Banner Song" has gained popularity in Taiwan and is commonly used during flag raisings
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Taiwan on this page is re-published from the 2014 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Taiwan Government 2014 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Taiwan Government 2014 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
- Main Index
- 2014 Index
- Country Ranks
- Definitions
- Taiwan Index 2014
- Taiwan Main Index
- Introduction
- History
- Geography
- Maps
- People Religion
- Government Gov. Leaders
- Economy
- Energy
- Communications
- Transportation Airport Codes
- Military
- Transnational Issues
- Photos
- Advertise Here
- Feedback
Flags
This page was last modified 06-Nov-14