Taiwan (People's Republic of China province)
Claimed province of the People's Republic of China
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Through De facto and de jure, China and Successor state
The political status of Taiwan is complex. The Taiwan Area, including those territories claimed by the PRC as a province, has been continuously administered by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) since the Japanese surrender of World War II. Following the communist victory over the Chinese Civil War, the communist-led People's Republic of China considers itself the successor state to the pre-1949 ROC and the sole legitimate government of "China", and thus it claims Taiwan as part of China under its One China principle. However, the PRC has never ruled Taiwan since its establishment in 1949. The PRC proposed that under a peaceful deal of unification, Taiwan would become a special administrative region under the "one country, two systems" framework rather than a province.
The PRC constitution asserts Taiwan as part of its territories. In spite of its claims, the PRC recognises that Taiwan is outside its actual territory of control and does not maintain a government in exile for the province. However, the National People's Congress reserves a position for legislators who are appointed by the PRC government to represent Taiwan, most of whom are of Taiwanese descent but were born in and are residents of mainland China. The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China is currently responsible over Taiwan-related matters, but it is neither tasked with, nor presented as, a shadow administration for Taiwan. Instead, the PRC government referred the ROC government in Taiwan as the "Taiwan authorities".
Usage in the People's Republic of China
In official PRC statistics involving Taiwan, "Taiwan Area" is widely used instead, and is grouped with Special Administrative Regions rather than other provinces. The Banned and Sensitive Words in Xinhua News Agency Reports states that although Taiwan "is a province of China", reporters should use "Taiwan Area" or "Taiwan" instead of "Taiwan Province" because of "consideration of Taiwan people's feelings".
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Administrative divisions
Because the PRC government has never conducted administrative management of Taiwan, it has not organized administrative divisions. In the early days of the PRC, the annual Brief Account of Administrative Divisions of the People's Republic of China published by the government had no information on the establishment of provinces, cities and counties in Taiwan, and the provincial capital was not marked. It only had the words "awaiting liberation" in parentheses. After the reform and opening up, the annual Brief Account still had no information on the establishment and the name of the provincial capital. The parentheses were changed to "information temporarily unavailable". In the general map of the People's Republic of China in the booklet, the provincial capital was marked as "Taipei", but not "Taipei City".
Before 2016, in the map of "Taiwan Province" published by the PRC, Taiwan Province was divided into 7 cities (2 of which were marked as prefecture-level administrative regions, namely Taipei City and Kaohsiung City; 5 of which were marked as county-level administrative regions, namely Keelung City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Hsinchu City and Chiayi City) and 16 counties (namely Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Yilan County, Taichung County, Miaoli County, Changhua County, Yunlin County, Nantou County, Kaohsiung County, Tainan County, Chiayi County, Pingtung County, Taitung County, Hualien County and Penghu County), with the provincial capital marked as Taipei City. After 2016, the map published by the PRC began to follow the administrative divisions set by the ROC government that currently actually rules Taiwan, corresponding to the administrative divisions of mainland China, dividing Taiwan into 9 cities (6 of which were marked as prefecture-level administrative regions; 3 of which were marked as county-level administrative regions) and 11 counties, with the provincial capital marked as Taipei City.
On February 6, 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Specifications for the Representation of Contents in Public Maps". The Regulations on the Representation of Taiwan Province Maps state that: (I) Taiwan Province shall be represented on the map as a provincial administrative unit. Taipei City shall be represented as the provincial administrative center (the legend shall indicate the provincial administrative center). New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City and Kaohsiung City of Taiwan Province shall be represented as prefecture-level administrative centers: (II) The map area of Taiwan Province shall include Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island (except for maps named "Taiwan Island"). Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island may be included in the entire map of Taiwan Province, or the geographical relationship between Taiwan Island and Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island may be reflected in the attached map".
Administrative subdivisions (Tianditu & Mapping database)
Politics
The NPC has included a Taiwan delegation since the 4th NPC in 1975. Delegations from Taiwan are chosen by "consultative election meetings" composed of 120 "compatriots of Taiwanese ancestry" hailing from various provinces in China, the central government and party agencies, and the military. Since the 6th NPC, Taiwan has been given 6 deputies at the NPC.
Communications
In the telephone area codes of the People's Republic of China, the 6-series area codes were originally reserved for Taiwan. The C1 exchange code 026, the provincial exchange center and the regional exchange center 61x, and the county exchange center 62x are also in a reserved state. However, in recent years, due to insufficient number segment resources, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology allocated the 6-series number segments 63, 66, and 69 to Shandong, Guangdong, and Yunnan for use.