Taiwan, located in East Asia, is an island about 120 km off the coast of mainland China. It has a population of over 23 million and was controlled by China, Japan, the Dutch, and the Spanish at different points in history. In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and the defeated Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war, and Taiwan has since developed its own distinct identity and democratic system of government separate from mainland China.