Part of the country series of articles.
TRAVEL ADVISORY: RECONSIDER ALL BUT ESSENTIAL TRAVELPARSTATE advises that Taiwanese laws regarding political expression and criticism of the government are among the most repressive in the world. The Commonwealth has a limited consular presence in Taiwan, and is unable to intervene in cases of arrest or detention. All but essential travel should be reconsidered.
| Republic of China | |
|---|---|
| Military Republic | |
 |
|
| Capital | Taipei |
| Languages | Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and indigenous languages |
| Population | 18,400,000 |
The Republic of China is a military dictatorship on the island of Taiwan, which has governed the island since the Nationalist retreat from the mainland in the late 1940s. Chiang Kai-shek died nearly a century ago but remains the ideological centre of the state, memorialised in statues, curricula and official portraiture to a degree unseen since Lenin. The party governs in his name, invokes his authority in policy disputes and maintains the legal claim that it is the rightful government of all China.
Taiwan is sustained by American strategic interest and has received substantial military and economic support since the Nationalist defeat. It is prosperous by regional standards, with a manufacturing economy that has moved progressively into electronics and precision industry. The white terror of the early occupation years has faded into a subtler surveillance state, but the apparatus remains intact and is used to punish dissent.