Geography of Taiwan and Green Island to the southeast, separated from the northernmost islands of the Philippines by the Bashi Channel. The islands of Kinmen and Matsu near the coast of Fujian across the Taiwan Strait have a total area of ; the Pratas and Taiping islets in the South China Sea are also administered by the ROC, but are not part of the Taiwanese archipelago. The island of Taiwan was formed approximately 4 to 5 million years ago at a complex convergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. In a boundary running the length of the island and
Mainland China has been in mainstream use and usually has no particular political connotations, since generations born after the takeover were taught that Taiwan is part of Republic of China, and so is mainland China, and that they are "Chinese". Government organizations and official and legal documents in Taiwan, including the Republic of China Constitution also use "the mainland" to refer to mainland China, since the ROC government has never recognized the founding of the PRC and because its Constitution does not allow the existence of another state within its territory, constitutional amendments made in the 1990s had to refer to the