Min Guo

Min Guo (民國 in pinyin: min2 guo2, literal meaning: "people-country"), the Republic, followed the Qing Dynasty in China. It is also known as Republic of China or ROC.

The Republic of China currently rules the province of Taiwan, and Kinmen and Lienchiang counties of Fujian province. Its position on the Mainland remains ambiguous for reasons that are more fully detailed in the linked articles.

Although President Lee Teng-hui has declared that the ROC does not challenge the communist administration of the Mainland, the National Assembly has not and is unlikely to officially renounce ROC sovereignty over Mainland China and Outer Mongolia as such a declaration would likely be seen as moving towards a declaration of Taiwan independence and would result in bad reaction from both the PRC government and reunification supporters on Taiwan.

The People's Republic of China considers the government on Taiwan to be illegitimate and that the Republic of China became defunct upon its founding on October 1, 1949. Schools on the mainland inncorrectly teach that the Republic of China no longer exists and that Chiang Kai-shek declared a new republic upon relocating the government to Taiwan. This is never known to have occurred.

Calendrical System

Many official documents on Taiwan still use the Min Guo system of numbering years in which year one was 1912, the date of the founding of the Republic of China. For example, Year 2002 is "Min Guo 91".