Republic of China Navy

The Republic of China Navy is the maritime branch of Taiwan's military, the Republic of China Armed Forces. It traces its origins to the Imperial Qing Navy, most of whose fleet defected to the revolutionary side in October 1911 during the Xinhai Revolution. It was long divided among regional fleets during the warlord era, and it was badly beaten by the Imperial Japanese Navy after the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937. During the Chinese Civil War it escorted supply convoys and helped evacuate the government and over one million refugees to Taiwan in 1949. Today its main mission is to defend Taiwan's waters against blockade or invasion, through patrols in the Taiwan Strait and readiness for counter-invasion operations, and the Marine Corps functions as one of its branches.