ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Taiwan. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Taiwan. Taiwanese can change their government through elections and enjoy most basic rights. The constitution vests executive power in a president who is directly elected for a four-year term. After losing the presidency in 2000, the conservative Koumintang Party (KMT) lost control of Taiwan's parliament for the first time in the December 2001 elections. Analysts said the defeat could be a harbinger of the once-mighty KMT's eventual demise, as party leader Lien Chan's goal of eventual reunification with mainland China resonates little with the island's native-Taiwanese majority.
