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
Mainland China need to refer to the "mainland area" and "Free Area" altogether. In 1992, a high-level political meeting between the ROC and PRC was held in Hong Kong where what became called the "1992 Consensus" developed. This "consensus" essentially reaffirmed that both the ROC (then under KMT administration) and the PRC agree there is only "one China" in a definition that covers both sides of Taiwan Strait, but they differ on their own interpretation of what that "China" means. Each interprets and believes it is the China and has a claim on the territories held by the other. In this context,