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
Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China the PRC claims Taiwan to be its rightful territory, it recognises that Taiwan is outside its actual territory and does not maintain a shadow government or government-in-exile of Taiwan Province. However, its parliament includes legislators to represent Taiwan, most of whom are mainland people of Taiwanese descent. However, one member of the National CPC's Congress (Lu Li'an) was born and grew up in Taiwan (in response the Taiwanese government revoked her citizenship). In deference to the PRC's claim, the United Nations for official purposes calls the Taiwan Area "Taiwan, Province of China". The People's Republic of China was founded in