Taiwan and larger than Belgium. The island of Taiwan has an area of , and lies some from the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Bashi Channel of the Luzon Strait directly to the south, and the South China Sea to the southwest. Its shape is similar to a sweet potato, giving rise to the slang term "hanji" ("sweet potato" in Hokkien) used by Taiwanese Hokkien speakers to refer to people of native Taiwanese descent. The island is characterized by the contrast between
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