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     | The constitutional government on Taiwan 
    was established in 1947, just two years before General Chiang Kai-shek's 
    government was forced to leave mainland China as a result of the communist 
    takeover in 1949 under Mao Zedong. Since 1996, Taiwan has had a directly 
    elected president. Mainland China considers Taiwan to be a province of 
    China, and the United States so recognized that fact in the Shanghai 
    Agreement that President Nixon executed on his first visit to China. Most 
    residents on Taiwan were either born in China or are descended from 
    ancestors who were.
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