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Taiwan is a Tier IV island nation located in East Asia 
. The country is prominently known for being one of the hardest nations to play, as it is oftentimes dominated and conquered by powerful nearby countries, most notably 
China and 
Japan, as it is a required nation for both the 
Qing Dynasty and the 
Empire of Japan, respectively.
However, in exclusion of the challenging endeavors, it has a considerable amount of cities, most of which are significaly populated, allowing to produce a durable military, composed of a robust naval and army defense, during the initial phases of the games. In addition, Taiwan geographically begins as an island nation, which establishes its foundation in maintaining naval superiority to deter maritime assaults and amphibious landings during war.
Background
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The history of the island of Taiwan dates back tens of thousands of years to the earliest known evidence of human habitation. The sudden appearance of a culture based on agriculture around 3000 BC is believed to reflect the arrival of the ancestors of today's Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Half of the island was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, followed by an influx of Hoklo people including Hakka immigrants from the Fujian and Guangdong areas of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait. The Spanish built a settlement in the north for a brief period but were driven out by the Dutch in 1642. In 1662, Koxinga, a loyalist of the Ming dynasty who had lost control of mainland China in 1644, defeated the Dutch and established a base of operations on the island. His forces were defeated by the Qing dynasty in 1683, and parts of Taiwan became increasingly integrated into the Qing empire. Following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, the Qing ceded the island, along with Penghu, to the Empire of Japan. Taiwan produced rice and sugar to be exported to the Empire of Japan, and also served as a base for the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia and the Pacific during World War II. Japanese imperial education was implemented in Taiwan and many Taiwanese also fought for Japan during the war. In 1945, following the end of World War II, the nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC), led by the Kuomintang (KMT), took control of Taiwan. In 1949, after losing control of mainland China in the Chinese Civil War, the ROC government under the KMT withdrew to Taiwan and President Chiang Kai-shek declared martial law. The KMT ruled Taiwan (along with the Islands of Kinmen, Wuqiu and the Matsu on the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait) as a single-party state for forty years, until democratic reforms in the 1980s, which led to the first-ever direct presidential election in 1996. During the post-war period, Taiwan experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth known as the "Taiwan Miracle", and was known as one of the "Four Asian Tigers". |
Base Statistics
Economy
Taiwan, as mentioned, is a surprisingly strong nation in terms of base statistics. As such, it's not surprising that it has a relatively great economy, with the nation making $1,178,910 every 5 days at the start of the game. $1,135,942 from tax and $42,968 from resources. This, however, drops to a still formidable $978,910 once the expenses of the home guard are accounted for.
Resources
| Resources of Taiwan | |
|---|---|
 Oil
|
+6.95 |
Military
As mentioned already, Taiwan, with its cities, location, and general demographics, make it a surprisingly strong nation in terms of its military. Taiwan starts with 100,000 infantry (home guards). Taiwan has a base manpower capacity of 425,968 at the start of 2019, and a manpower gain of 1,666 to go along with that.
| Base Manpower Capacity of Taiwan per Conscription Law | |
|---|---|
| The following columns below present the manpower capacity from lowest (Disarmed) to highest (Required). RP stands for "Recruitable Population". | |
| Disarmed [1% RP] |
|
| Volunteer [2% RP] |
|
| Limited [5% RP] |
|
| Extensive [10% RP] |
|
| Required [25% RP] |
|
Geography
Terrain
Taiwan is Semi-Mountainous in the east and has no terrain in the west.
Biome
Taiwan has no biome.
Cities
Taiwan has a total of 24 cities, 5 of which being square cities. These can be used to quickly make tanks at the start of the game.
Population
As mentioned before as well, Taiwan has an extraordinarily high population that you wouldn't expect from a small, isolated island nation in East Asia . The nation has a base inhabitant count of just about 21,5 million people (21,298,379 to be exact). This explains its relatively high manpower gain. Around 28 
Consumer Goods are required to maintain its population.
Politics
Ideology
Taiwan has the starting settings of having the Non-aligned ideology, and the Volunteer conscription law.
Formables
Taiwan has no releasables, and only one formable, the 
Republic of China.
The Republic of China is formed by annexing all of China.
Threats
- China trying to form the Qing Dynasty or simply expanding into the rest of its region.
- Japan expanding into Asia . They also require you for their only formable, the Empire of Japan.
- Any Malay nation, especially the
Philippines, 
Malaysia, or 
Indonesia trying to form 
Alam Melayu.
Strategies
Taiwan, which many people believe cannot survive the Chinese Invasion, can actually survive against China. However, it depends on the player they're facing.
If the player is very skilled
Most of these players know your counters (submarines), and therefore will use destroyers. Usually you won't survive, but one of your hopes is getting a major power (
United States, 
Russia, 
India, 
Brazil, etc.) to intervene on your side. Another way would be to use lots of artillery to counter the destroyers. Producing tanks and electronics factories with leftover money are both highly recommended. If you actually manage to repel the invasion, you can start following the steps on the Mediocre part.
If the Player is Mediocre:
- Prepare to make tanks and submarines. Try to make electronic factories as fast as you can, and sell as much as you can to AI countries. The maximum you can sell is 5 units for large countries, so try to base your trade on many countries. This will also decrease your reliance on one nation, so if this said nation is invaded or becomes a player, your economy won't crash. Another alternative is Consumer Goods, which raises stability and becomes another source of income when exported.
2. Declare war first, because China will only invade once they feel that they can defeat you. This means that by the time China declares war, they will have a substantial Military prepared.
3. Use your ships to intercept any transport ships (Usually containing 1M divisions). Most inexperienced Chinese players just send their entire army in a few ships, which can be easily decimated by only a few submarines.
4. If the player realizes that you're using submarines, they will start producing submarines of their own too. Defend your submarines at all costs using destroyers and artillery. After this, they might use battleships or aircraft carriers and/or artillery; use your submarines to destroy the battleships and aircraft carriers, and your tanks to destroy the artillery. Make sure the tanks are being escorted by a destroyer/frigate and/or a submarine.
5. At this point, some other nation might invade them; make sure the nation attacking China is allied to you.
6. If no nation intervenes or attacks China, use the income from your electronic factories to produce more tanks. Most likely China will waste all of their manpower trying to get to your island.
Alternative Strategy (Outdated)
Make 4 electronics factories and sell it to any AI nation (AI major powers are the most likely to accept your trades). Then, make a submarine and 1 destroyer. When China declares war on you, fortify your capital so that their troops get killed. Then kill some of their troops and make artillery. Research Naval Guns and make a battleship. This is crucial as battleships do lots of damage. Then make 2 steel and motor factories. Make tanks and then snipe China's capital. Scorch it and see China ragequit as their empire falls. After that land tanks in Manchuria and split them. The Chinese states will probably declare independence now, so you can easily take them. Then you can peace China after they capitulate and build troops. Invade 
Tibet with the troops as tanks are slow in mountains. Employ this same tactic with other Chinese states with hostile geography to troops. If you need to capture parts 
Fujian and 
Guangxi you will most likely have to specialize your troops for the Jungle, due to the mentioned releasables being infested with it, plus the amount of square cities in each releasable which will make it harder to capture both. Then, the only releasable most likely left to invade is 
Sinkiang, and due to the amount of square cities it has, tanks are recommended for taking it. It is recommended to avoid sieging Shanghai as it is highly populous. Instead, try to force peace Sinkiang. After restoring your grip on the entire Chinese realm, you can form Republic of China.
If the Player is Bad
Repeat the first, second and third steps from the Mediocre player part, they might rage quit, or another country might intervene, like India, Russia, or Japan which would take a lot of the weight from China's onslaught off your shoulders. If China doesn't rage quit or you want to help you can do step 6 of Mediocre.
Forming the Republic of China
The main strategy here is to destroy as many Chinese troops as possible. When you join the game, start right of the bat by enabling the 'Submarine Warfare' doctrine, and produce 1 submarine, two if you can manage.
Once that's done, you must develop your capital of Taipei and build a recruitment center there. After that is done, you should recruit 50K more troops (You'll have a total 160K by then), during this time, China will likely justify on you, so you must ready up your army.
When China declares war, you must keep your submarines out of sight, so you can shred their armies before they realize their mistake. Once that's done, they will likely attempt to spam troops and try to overwhelm you. If they attempt that and you do not have 2 submarines, quickly produce another submarine and when they try to cross the Taiwan Strait, put them into action. By then, China must have found out about your submarine tactics and would build frigates and destroyers to destroy you. To counter this, gather enough materials to build a battleship and then change your doctrine to "Capital Fleet" to enhance your battleship capabilities. Once you do that, build the battleship and attack the destroyers and frigates.
To have a balanced budget, disband one of your 2 submarines and cancel your steel trade. After that is done, you can bombard the Chinese troops on the coast. After that, you should request manpower from another country and then recruit 200K troops (you'd have 360K after that, and you must as well merge them) and quickly develop your cities to avoid getting into deficit. Then, you may launch a Naval landing from either 2 places:
- Right across the strait, if you choose this its suggested you land in Fuzhou.
- Hainan, (The Island just east of
Vietnam in the South China sea).
Its suggested you land in Hainan, if you do you must land with caution and be escorted by your battleship. By then, your cities in your mainland would be developed, so you must summon an extra 50K and merge them all in Taipei to avoid getting capital sniped and as well have your submarine patrol the Taiwan Strait.
If your landing succeeds in Hainan, fully capture the island then move on north and to the mainland and attempt to capture Guangzhou. After you do that (or while doing it) the Chinese player would likely send an army to attack your army there. To counter that, you can get your battleship to bombard the Chinese troops. Also, hire a general. If the general's bonus is defensive, you must stand your ground. If it's attack, then you must face the Chinese troops in battle. If it's XP Bonus, then either will work.
After you succeed, you must wait for your troops to regenerate, again call MP from anyone. When your troops fully regenerate you should recruit 60K troops from your mainland and reinforce them by landing in Guangzhou, (Your total is now 420K, keep in mind.) then you may split your troops into 4 divisions (~100K per division) then you may capture all of southern China.
This doesn't mean the Chinese player would do nothing, so you must use your battleship again to go up and down the coast bombarding Chinese troops. You may get Russia or India to intervene by then, either directly or indirectly (Money/MP).
Once you gain enough money and MP you must develop cities in mainland Taiwan and once, you're done recruit 400K troops and disband your submarines. Then, those 400K troops would be assigned to your general, and to avoid the Chinese submarines, you should build their counter, a destroyer. Once that's done you may escort your 400K with battleships and destroyers to capture Beijing. The Chinese player would likely rage quit and you can summon 100K more troops every year and set your troops in the mainland on auto-capture. Do note that once you take Beijing, China will most likely start falling apart into warlords again, and people will try and take them. After you are finished and finally take the last Chinese core though, you may annex all occupied cities and if anybody took a Chinese core then you may peacefully or violently get them to cede it and then you can form the Republic of China.
Trivia
- Despite the nation of Taiwan officially being called the Republic of China, the name is instead given to the formable, as they are the same political entity, in different time periods.
- Politically speaking, Taiwan is one of the most controversial nations in the world. With the Chinese (PRC) government claiming that the territories administered by Taiwan (ROC) are theirs, and the Taiwanese government claiming that not only mainland China, but also all the lands that belonged to the Republic of China at its peak are under their administration. The situation isn't helped by the fact that Taiwan administers multiple minor islands much closer to the coast of China than the main island.[1]
- The islands mentioned before may be added in a future update, as the releasables document mentions Hok-giong ( Fujian) as being released from Taiwan, which indicates that the port/island cities may be added.
