Taiwan claims to be the heir of the Republic of China (Zhonghua minguo 中華民國) and still has a provincial assembly that represents only one part of China whose mainland is occupied by the Communists. For a long time internationally accepted as representant of China, Taiwan R.O.C. lost its seat of the United Nations in 1972. Since then Taiwan undertook semi-diplomatical relations with other states via economy bureaus. Internally the dictatorship of the Guomindang 國民黨 (Kuo-min-tang) was challenged by various claims for more democracy, first on the local level and since 1995 on the "national" (or provincial) level. Four years later political change took place, the People's Progress Party (Minjindang 民進黨) taking over the government through the second free elections held in Taiwan. The issue if Taiwan is only a province or part of a to-be-united China or an independent state dominates the international relations since more than four decades and is still not resolved. Being ousted internationally in the political sphere since the 1970es when it was driven out of the United Nations and replaced by the People's Republic, Taiwan concentrated on her economical resources and became a modern industrial state with high growth especially in the high-technology sector. Taiwan became one of the four tigers of Asia and was only marginally shaken by the Asian crisis in 1997.

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