ROC Taiwan 2002

ROC Yearbook 2002

Cross-Strait Relations
In August 2001, scholars and performers from Taiwan and the Chinese mainland met in Ilan County for a conference on the development of Taiwanese opera and Hsiang opera (popular in Southern Fujian).
  1. The Status of a Divided China
  2. Guidelines for National Unification
  3. Statute Governing Relations
  4. Organizational Structures
    1. National Unification Council
    2. Mainland Affairs Council
    3. Straits Exchange Foundation
  5. Cross-Strait Consultations
  6. 2000-2001 Cross-Strait Relations
    1. Efforts of Goodwill Reconciliation
    2. New Prospects
  7. Public Opinion Polls
  8. Cross-Strait Exchanges
  9. The "Three Mini-Links"
      1. Implementation of the TML for Kinmen and Matsu
      2. Shipping Link
      3. Merchandise Trade
      4. Entry and Exit of Personnel
      5. Decriminalization
  10. Hong Kong and Macau
    1. History of Hong Kong
    2. History of Macau
    3. Policy Toward Hong Kong and Macau
  11. Looking to the Future
Charts, tables, and boxes:

Potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait remains a serious threat to the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and world peace. Beginning in 1927, the Chinese civil war brought death and destruction to untold millions of people. After the government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei in 1949, major battles erupted during the 1950s, and lesser incidents continued throughout the 1960s. Even today, when trade, business, and people-to-people contacts between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are rapidly expanding, the authorities on the Chinese mainland refuse to renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

Consequently, seven decades of strife between the Republic of China and the Chinese Communists make the peaceful unification of China one of the world's greatest challenges. Nonetheless, guided by the principles of reason, peace, parity, and reciprocity, the government of the Republic of China has consistently and creatively sought new approaches to solving the complications and difficulties related to a divided China.

A Statistical Comparison
  Republic of China
(Also known internationally as ROC, Taiwan, Republic of China on Taiwan, or Free China) 		People's Republic of China
(Also known internationally as PRC, China, Communist China, Red China, mainland China, or the Chinese mainland)
Land area 13,969 square miles1 3,706,566 square miles2
Population 22.28 million1 1.26 billion6
Type of government Democracy3 Communist Party-led state3
Per capita GNP US$14,1881 US$8422
Foreign trade US$288.33 billion1 US$474.30 billion2
Foreign exchange reserves US$110.6 billion1 (March 2001) US$175.9 billion2 (March 2001)
Foreign debt US$34.8 million1 US$145.7 billion2
Investment climate 5th/505 22nd/505
Human rights condition Free (1.5)4 Not free (6.5)4
Literacy 98.12% 1 84.86% (1999)2
Mobile phone penetration rate 80.24% 1 6.80%2
Internet accounts 6.26 million1 22.5 million2
1 ROC statistics
2 PRC statistics
3 The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2001
4 Freedom House, Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights & Civil Liberties, 2000-2001 (on a scale of 1.0 to 7.0, with 1.0 being the freest)
5 Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI), Switzerland
6 China Economic Information Center (Hong Kong)
7 Strategis Group
* All figures are as of 2000, unless otherwise noted.


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