Circle the area on this map
A. Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 until its defeat in World War II when the ROC took control of the island on behalf of the Allies. The civil war between Nationalists and Communists soon resumed. In 1949, Communists took over mainland China and established the PRC. The defeated Nationalist forces and leaders of the ROC retreated to Taiwan.
D. Scientists theorize that between 5,000 BC and 1,500 BC Taiwan’s Austronesian-speaking people used small outrigger boats to spread out across the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The people covered an area as far east as Madagascar off the coast of Africa and west to Easter Island near South America; as far north as Hawaii and as far south as New Zealand.
C. The U.S. switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China in 1979 to counter threats from the Soviet Union, but the U.S. kept supporting Taiwan. Some worry that the election of pro-independence leaders in Taiwan and China’s growing aggressiveness could ignite armed conflict with the U.S.
B. South Korea is flanked by the Yellow Sea to the west, and the Sea of Japan to the east. Its southern tip lies on the Korea Strait and the East China Sea. The South China Sea is bounded by China, the Indochinese Peninsula and the islands of Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan.