Taiwan referendums

·         On February 1, 2008 in Taiwan, secretary-general of election commission, Teng Tien-yu announced to hold two referendums on 22 March on joining UN, the same day as the forthcoming presidential election.

·         The two referendums have been proposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Kuomintang.

·         Taiwan has no seat at the UN, having lost it to China in 1971. Its attempts to regain membership have been blocked.

·         Beijing has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island as the Communist Party swept to power.

·         The island's latest attempt to rejoin the UN, for the first time under the name Taiwan, was blocked in September.

·         The referendum proposed by opposition KMT, which wants closer ties with China, will meanwhile ask whether the island should seek to "return to the UN with a pragmatic and flexible approach".

·         The KMT referendum proposes joining the UN using either the official name, Republic of China, Taiwan or any other suitable designation.

·        Taiwan is the island which has for all practical purposes been independent for half a century but which China describes as a renegade province that must be re-united with the mainland.

·        The Chinese nationalist government of President Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan ahead of the advance of Communists under Mao Zedong in 1949.

·        The government-in-exile established Taipei as its capital and for decades hoped to reclaim control over the mainland.

·        The leadership of mainland China has reserved the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, and has missiles aimed at the island.

·        The military threat is partly offset by the United States' cooperation with Taipei, and by the military capacity of Taiwan itself - one of the world's big arms purchasers.

·        Taiwan is considered to have achieved an economic miracle, becoming one of the world's top producers of computer technology. In the early 1990s it made the transition from an authoritarian one-party state to a democracy.

·        It is one of Asia's big traders, yet has been diplomatically isolated since the 1970s.

·        China insists that no country can have formal ties with both mainland China and Taiwan.

·        It has formal diplomatic relations with only 27 countries and has no seat at the United Nations.