Geography of Taiwan Geography of Taiwan Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is an island in East Asia; located some off the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of , which includes other nearby islands such as Penghu (). The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest. The island makes up 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China, which is also known as "Taiwan". Taiwan is a tilted fault block, characterized by the
Flag of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928 by the Kuomintang (KMT). It was enshrined in the sixth article of the Constitution of the Republic of China when it was promulgated in 1947. The flag is no longer used in mainland China after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. As the islands of Taiwan and Penghu were under Japanese rule until 1945, the flag was not in use in two territories, until ROC took control in 1945. The flag is now mostly used within Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other outlying islands, where the ROC relocated to in 1949 after its defeat