Key dates in Taiwan’s history: A contested island’s evolution

BEIJING (AP) — As China staged live-fire military drills around Taiwan featuring aircraft, warships and rocket launches, the Chinese foreign minister reiterated Beijing’s aim to achieve “ complete reunification ” with the island it claims as its own. Taipei pushes back against those sovereignty claims. Taiwan, it says, never belonged to China in its current constitutional and political form — and has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Taiwan’s history is one that includes myriad phases, rulers and squabbles. Here are some key periods and dates in the contested island’s history: 1600s to 1885: Colonization and Chinese rule…