Penghu

The Penghu Islands (Chinese澎湖 群岛, Pinyin Penghu Qúndǎo, W.-G. P'eng -hu Ch'ün -tao ) are an archipelago in the Taiwan Strait. They are often called Pescadores, where this name from the Portuguese word for " fishing " is derived.

The 64 islands in the group are 50 km from the west coast of Taiwan and 130 km from the coast of mainland China's Fujian province away.

History

P'eng -hu was first mentioned in 1171 in unofficial histories and regional reports of the Southern Song Dynasty. From the mid-17th century to 1895, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands in the hands of various rulers, first by pirates. In 1583, Taiwan was " discovered" by the Portuguese, Dutch navigator and in 1624 occupied the Dutch East India Company, the islands of the Dutch colonial empire. In 1661 followed the Ming loyal Kingdom Koxinga, landed in 1683, the islands then in the possession of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. The Manchu Empire had the islands along with Taiwan after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

1943 pushed the United States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of China in the Cairo Declaration their will to return all the Japanese occupied territories of China to the Republic. In the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, these claims were repeated. After the withdrawal of the Japanese in October 1945, the Republic of China took over control of the islands. In the surrender of Japan following the Peace Treaty of San Francisco in 1951 gave Japan its claims on Taiwan and the Pescadores also formally. However, not recognized by the People's Republic of China contract does not specify in whose possession the islands should go. To date, they are administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan, but the People's Republic of China, which regards Taiwan, including the Pescadores quite as " renegade province " and legitimate part of its territory.

Management

The administration of the islands is carried out today by the Republic of China on Taiwan as dortiger Penghu County.