7 There are over 650 mountain churches throughout the tribal areas and some in cities

8 The lack of pastors is serious, but slowly improving

9 The witness among students is important

10 Mission vision languished as Taiwan's diplomatic isolation increased

11 Expatriate missionary numbers have declined, but there remain many areas of input needed – evangelism, church planting, Bible teaching, teaching English, etc

12 Less evangelized areas and peoples:

a) The Taiwanese working class are linguistically (Hoklo/Hokkien) and culturally separated from the majority of evangelical churches which use Mandarin

b) The Hakka communities in the north-east and south-east

c) The Muslim community is largely Hui – originally from the Mainland and also some 11,000 Malays

d) The Penghu Islanders numbering 97,000

13 Support ministries for prayer:

a) Christian literature

b) Christian radio was pioneered by the Pocket Testament League in 1951

c) Christian film and video

Politics

Under Japanese rule 1895-1945, then reverting to China.

Religion

Secular state with freedom of religion.

Churches in China, Taiwan

Missionaries from China, Taiwan

295 in 21 agencies to 27 countries

Missionaries to China, Taiwan

963 in 146 agencies from 26 countries

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Geography

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Area 36,000 sq.km. A mountainous island 160km east of mainland China together with the Penghu archipelago and the islands of Matsu and Quemoy close to the mainland.

Population (2000) 22,401,000 +0.77%AGR

Capital Taipei 7,350,000.

Peoples

Han Chinese 97.3%.

Malayo-Polynesian mountain peoples 1.7%.

Other 1%.

Economy

Rapid industrialization and economic growth to become one of the world's most dynamic export-oriented economies of the world.

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