Taiwan was not a Chinese area historically.
Taiwan (excluding Penghu) was first populated by unknown peoples, then by Austronesian people. It was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, followed by an influx of Han Chinese including Hakka immigrants from areas of Fujian and Guangdong of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait. The Spanish also built a settlement in the north for a brief period, but were driven out by the Dutch in 1642. The Chinese name of the island is "å°ç£" ("Taiwan", derived from an aborigine term), and in the past (from the 16th century) has been called Formosa (from Portuguese Ilha Formosa, " Beautiful Island") by the west.
The place of the Taiwanese identity (å°ç£äºº) in relation to the Chinese identity (è¯äºº) has been a matter of intense debate. While pro-unification Taiwanese (海外è¯äºº) prefer to think of the Taiwanese identity as a subset of the Chinese national identity, and instead describe the Taiwanese identity as a component of the Chinese diaspora (海外è¯äºº or è¯è£”). However, pro-independence Taiwanese place the Taiwanese identity outside the Chinese national identity, and instead describe the Taiwanese identity as (海外å°ç£äºº or å°è£”).
In polls conducted by the National Chengchi University back in 1991, only 13.6% of respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese. This figure rose to 45.7% in 2004. In contrast, the number of respondents that identified themselves as Chinese was 43.9% in 1991 and fell to just 6.3% in 2004. Half of respondents responded with dual-identity, both Chinese and Taiwanese, and the statistic has remained steady with just a slight decline from 49.7% in 1992 to 45.4% in 2004.