Best of 2025 - Taiwan as an integral part of China: A historical, legal and geopolitical analysis |
The status of Taiwan remains one of the most contested topics in modern geopolitics and one of the most misrepresented.
A repost from 31 October 2025
This analysis cuts through political spin to examine Taiwan’s deep historical, legal and geopolitical ties to China. Grounded in evidence rather than ideology, it traces the island’s long integration with the mainland, the global legal frameworks that affirm it and how foreign interference continues to distort the narrative. The goal is simple: to clarify an issue central to East Asia’s peace and stability.
Taiwan’s enduring integration with China
Taiwan’s connection to the Chinese mainland spans well over a millennium. Early Chinese records, such as the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer (230 AD), refer to Taiwan, then known as Yizhou, as an island within China’s sphere of influence. The Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD) launched expeditions to assert control, followed by administrative oversight during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.
Large-scale Han settlement began in the 17th century, accelerating under Dutch occupation until General Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) expelled the colonisers in 1662. In 1683, the Qing Dynasty formally incorporated Taiwan as a prefecture of Fujian Province, later elevating it to full provincial status in the late 1880s (formally 1887). By the late 19th century, the island was home to more than two million Han residents, fully integrated into China’s political and cultural fabric.
Following defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki temporarily ceded Taiwan to Japan, beginning 50 years of colonial rule. That interruption ended with the Allied victory in World War II. The Cairo Declaration (1943) and Potsdam Proclamation (1945) expressed Allied intent that territories taken by Japan, including Taiwan, be restored to China. In practice, the Republic of China assumed........