Fujian Province (Republic of China)
Fujian Province (
Tongyong Pinyin spelling;
Fu-chien according to
Wades-Giles and
Fukien according to
Postal System Pinyin;
Chinese: 福建省) is a
province on the coast of southeastern
China. Since
1949, Fujian has been split between two separate governments: the vast majority of Fujian province has been governed by the
People's Republic of China based in
mainland China; while a number of offshore islands have been governed by the
Republic of China (ROC) based in
Taiwan. This article describes the specific portion of Fujian governed by the ROC (Taiwan). See
Fujian for a description of the entire province, especially the part currently governed by the PRC (mainland).
The seat of the provincial government of ROC-controlled Fujian is
Chincheng Township of
Kinmen County. Between 1956 to 1992, the ROC moved the Fujian provincial government out of Fujian territory altogether, to
Sindian,
Taipei County,
Taiwan Province.
During the
Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China (ROC) lost mainland China, including most of Fujian province, and was forced to relocate to Taiwan, while the victorious communist forces established the
People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. In the
Battle of Kuningtou, however, ROC forces were able to defend the island of
Quemoy just off the coast of Fujian from communist attack. As a result, the
Republic of China has been able to hold on to a number of offshore islands of Fujian, and has continued to maintain a separate Fujian provincial government to govern these islands, parallel to the province of Fujian in mainland China.
In
1956, the ROC government moved the provincial government of Fujian to
Sindian City, Taiwan, and the islands were placed under an extraordinarily tight military administration due to their extreme proximity to Mainland China. With the easing of cross-Straits relationships and the democratization of Taiwan in the
1990s, the islands were returned to civilian government in 1992. The provincial government has been moved back to
Quemoy, on Fujian soil, in 1996.
Recently, the ROC has significantly diluted the powers of the two provinces it administers, namely
Taiwan Province and Fujian. Most of the authority of the ROC's Fuchien province has been delegated to the two county governments of
Quemoy and
Lienchiang.
The ROC governs its portion of Fujian province under two counties:
Kinmen County and
Lienchiang County.
The situation of Lienchiang County is a smaller analogy of Fujian: like Fujian, it is split between the PRC government, which governs the vast majority of it as
Lianjiang County (spelled according to the
Hanyu Pinyin romanization system), and the ROC government which governs a few offshore islands of it, namely the
Matsu Islands and some surrounding island groups.
Kinmen County, on the other hand, is entirely within the jurisdiction of the ROC government.
The following are the islands of Fujian under the administration of the ROC, given by county:
*
Kinmen County (金門縣)
** Quemoy (金門島)
**
Lesser Quemoy (小金門島)
**
Wuciou (烏坵嶼)
*** Daciou (大坵)
*** Siaociou (小坵)
**
Dongding (東碇)
** Dadan (大"") and Erdan (二"")
*
Lienchiang County (連江縣)
**
Nangan (南竿島)
**
Beigan (北竿島)
**
Jyuguang Islands ('光列島), called Baiquan Islands (白犬列岛) by the PRC
**
Dongyin (東引島)
** Minor islands: Liang (亮島), Gaodeng (高登)
These islands have a total area of 182.66
km² and a total population of 71,000 (
2001).
*
Taiwan Province*
Politics of the Republic of China*
Battle of Kuningtou*
First Taiwan Strait Crisis*
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis*
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis*
ROC FuJian Provincial Government 
