Taiwan Province is a notional administrative division claimed by the People's Republic of China. Its claimed jurisdiction includes Taiwan and its affiliated islands, the Penghu Islands, and the Senkaku Islands and their affiliated islands; the islands of Kinmen and Matsu are claimed as part of Fujian Province. The territory of the claimed province, including the entire island of Taiwan, is in actuality administered by the Republic of China (ROC), but is not coextensive with the smaller Taiwan Province of the ROC, while the Senkaku Islands is administered by Japan.
The PRC constitution asserts Taiwan as part of PRC's territories.[5] While the PRC claims Taiwan as part of its territory, it recognises Taiwan is outside its actual territory of control and does not maintain a government in exile for Taiwan Province. However, the National People's Congress reserves a position for legislators that represent Taiwan, most of whom are of Taiwanese descent but were born in and are residents of mainland China. The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China is the part of the PRC government that has responsibility over Taiwan-related matters, but it is neither tasked with, nor presented as, a shadow administration for Taiwan. Instead, the ROC government currently based in Taiwan is referred to by the PRC as the "Taiwan authorities".[6]
Because the PRC government has never conducted administrative management of Taiwan, it has not organized administrative divisions. In the early days of the PRC, the annual Brief Account of Administrative Divisions of the People's Republic of China published by the government had no information on the establishment of provinces, cities and counties in Taiwan, and the provincial capital was not marked. It only had the words "awaiting liberation" in parentheses. After the reform and opening up, the annual Brief Account still had no information on the establishment and the name of the provincial capital. The parentheses were changed to "information temporarily unavailable". In the general map of the People's Republic of China in the booklet, the provincial capital was marked as "Taipei", but not "Taipei City".[8]
Before 2016, in the map of "Taiwan Province" published by the PRC, Taiwan Province was divided into 7 cities (2 of which were marked as prefecture-level administrative regions, namely Taipei City and Kaohsiung City; 5 of which were marked as county-level administrative regions, namely Keelung City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Hsinchu City and Chiayi City) and 16 counties (namely Taipei County, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Yilan County, Taichung County, Miaoli County, Changhua County, Yunlin County, Nantou County, Kaohsiung County, Tainan County, Chiayi County, Pingtung County, Taitung County, Hualien County and Penghu County), with the provincial capital marked as Taipei City. After 2016, the map published by the PRC began to follow the administrative divisions set by the ROC government that currently actually rules Taiwan, corresponding to the administrative divisions of mainland China, dividing Taiwan into 9 cities (6 of which were marked as prefecture-level administrative regions; 3 of which were marked as county-level administrative regions) and 11 counties, with the provincial capital marked as Taipei City.[9]
On February 6, 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Specifications for the Representation of Contents in Public Maps". The Regulations on the Representation of Taiwan Province Maps state that: (I) Taiwan Province shall be represented on the map as a provincial administrative unit. Taipei City shall be represented as the provincial administrative center (the legend shall indicate the provincial administrative center). New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City and Kaohsiung City of Taiwan Province shall be represented as prefecture-level administrative centers: (II) The map area of Taiwan Province shall include Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island (except for maps named "Taiwan Island"). Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island may be included in the entire map of Taiwan Province, or the geographical relationship between Taiwan Island and Diaoyu Island and Chiwei Island may be reflected in the attached map".[10][non-primary source needed]
The NPC has included a Taiwan delegation since the 4th NPC in 1975. Delegations from Taiwan are chosen by "consultative election meetings" composed of 120 "compatriots of Taiwanese ancestry" hailing from various provinces in China, the central government and party agencies, and the military. Since the 6th NPC, Taiwan has been given 6 deputies at the NPC.[12]
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