Taiwan Strait

Taiwan Strait
A map showing the Taiwan Strait Area
Traditional Chinese	臺灣海峽
Simplified Chinese	台湾海峡
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Taiwan Haixia Min - Hokkien POJ Tâi-ôan Hái-kiap Cantonese - Jyutping toi4 waan1 hoi2 haap3

The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide (111.85-mile-wide) strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast. The narrowest part is 131 km (81.4 mi.) wide.

Geography

Fujian province in mainland China is to the west of the strait, while important islands like Jinmen, Xiamen, Hainan Island, and the Matsu Islands are nearby. To the east are the west coast of Taiwan and Penghu. The island fishermen use the strait as a fishing resource. The Minjiang and Jiulong Rivers empty into the strait.

History

The Strait has been the theatre for several military confrontations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China since the last days of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 when the Kuomintang (KMT) forces led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated across the Strait and relocated its government on its final stronghold of Taiwan. A theoretical median line known as the cross-strait median (海峽中線) also exist on the water to prevent certain transportation from passing.^[1]

As part of Mainland China's National Expressway Plan, a tunnel or possibly a bridge, was proposed in 2005 to link the cities of Fuzhou, Fujian on mainland China, with Taipei, Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. If such an extreme construction would ever be built, it would by far exceed the length of any man-made tunnel in the world today. Engineers in Beijing state that a tunnel is technically feasible. Taipei had refused to open direct links out of concern for the island's security and in fear that by doing so it would have to recognise Beijing's one-China policy.^[2][3]

See also

• Cross-Strait relations
• Battle of Kuningtou
• First Taiwan Strait Crisis
• Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
• Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
• Political status of Taiwan
• Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project
• China Airlines flight 611
• Luzon Strait

Notes

Further reading

• Bush, R. & O'Hanlon, M. (2007). A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America. Wiley. ISBN 0471986771
• Bush, R. (2006). Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0815712901
• Carpenter, T. (2006). America's Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403968411
• Cole, B. (2006). Taiwan's Security: History and Prospects. Routledge. ISBN 0415365813
• Copper, J. (2006). Playing with Fire: The Looming War with China over Taiwan. Praeger Security International General Interest. ISBN 0275988880
• Federation of American Scientists et al. (2006). Chinese Nuclear Forces and U.S. Nuclear War Planning
• Gill, B. (2007). Rising Star: China's New Security Diplomacy. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0815731469
• Shirk, S. (2007). China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195306090
• Tsang, S. (2006). If China Attacks Taiwan: Military Strategy, Politics and Economics. Routledge. ISBN 0415407850
• Tucker, N.B. (2005). Dangerous Strait: the U.S.-Taiwan-China Crisis. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231135645

Coordinates: 24°48′40″N 119°55′42″E / 24.81111°N 119.92833°E / 24.81111; 119.92833