Sunton

**Sunton** (Traditional Chinese: 明國; pinyin: *Míngguó*), officially the **Federal Republic of Sunton** (Traditional Chinese: 大明聯邦共和國; pinyin: *Dàmíng Liánbāng Gònghéguó*), is a country in East Asia constituting the Qiandao Islands. Its neighbors include Japan to the south, China and Korea to the south-west, Russia to the west and north. Sunton is considered one of the populous micronations that lies in East China Sea.

Most islands of present-day Sunton was mainly uninhabited until beginning of the 20th century, but after the Second World War most islands in the Qiandao chain became uninhabited again. Sunton's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from uninhabited mountainous and volcanic islands to urban areas in the capital city of Nan'an. The country consists of three states and one territory, the largest state is the Beishan with the land area of 27,718 km².

The Federal Republic of Sunton is a federal, multi-party, parliamentary republic with a unicameral legislature, the Parliament. The Paoshoutang and the Minkungtang has dominated the Parliament since the declaration of independence in 2016. Sunton is one of the founding members of East Asia Summit of Micronations and the Asia-Pacific Micronational Economic Cooperation (APMEC). The country ranks high on its national social policies, on the Human Development Index (micronations), notably on key measures of education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing. Although population is low due to most uninhabited islands, Sunton has one of the medium per capita incomes, with low taxes. The country has cultural influences from the Tang dynasty and is considered as part of the East Asian cultural sphere.

The first written mention of Sunton is in Taiwan and Ryukyu history texts from the 21st century AD. Political influence from other regions, mainly Singapore, followed by periods of modern technology, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Sunton's history. Before the establishment of the Republic of Sunton, the country was colonized mostly by Japan under the Okinawa and Kagoshima Prefectures. The island of Duandao, also known as Hashima Island, is a symbol of the rapid industrialization, it is also a reminder of its dark history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War. It reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959. In 1974, with the coal reserves nearing depletion, the mine was closed and all of the residents departed soon after, leaving the island effectively abandoned for the following three decades. In 2016; Prime Minister Irene Cheung proclaimed the Republic of Sunton, the entity constituted the islands following the Liuyue Revolution.

## Etymology

The English name "Sunton" derives from the Portuguese pronunciation, *Suntão*. In the early 21st century, the country was visited by Portuguese tourist during the end of the Liuyue Revolution, after the declaration of independence, they referred the new state entity as "Suntão".

The full title of Sunton is *Dàmíng Mínguó* (大明民國; literally: *"Great Suntonese Republic"*), meaning the "Republic of Sunton". The common Suntonese names for the state are *Míngguó* (明國), from *míng* ("bright") and *guó* ("state, nation-state"), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive governments.

## History

### Early history

     Historically, the Chinese had used the uninhabited present-day Suntonese islands as navigational markers in making the voyage to the Ryukyu Kingdom upon commencement of diplomatic missions to the kingdom, "resetting the compass at a particular isle in order to reach the next one".

The first published description of the islands in Europe appears in a book imported by Isaac Titsingh in 1796. His small library of Japanese books included Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (三国通覧図説 an Illustrated Description of Three Countries) by Hayashi Shihei. This text, which was published in Japan in 1785, described the Ryūkyū Kingdom. Hayashi followed convention in giving the islands their Chinese names in his map in the text, where he coloured them in the same pink as China.

In 1832, the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland supported the posthumous abridged publication of Titsingh's French translation.

The name, "Pinnacle Isles" for the present-day Diaoyutai Islands was first used by James Colnett, who charted them during his 1789-1791 voyage in the Argonaut. William Robert Broughton sailed past them in November 1797 during his voyage of discovery to the North Pacific in HMS Providence, and referred to Uotsuri Island as "Peaks Island".

Reference was made to the islands in Edward Belcher's 1848 account of the voyages of HMS Sammarang. Captain Belcher observed that "the names assigned in this region have been too hastily admitted". Belcher reported anchoring off Pinnacle Island in March 1845.

### US and Japanese control

     As Sunton was historically used as maritime navigational markers, they were never subjected to administrative control other than the recording of the geographical positions on maps, descriptions in official records of Chinese missions to the Ryukyu Kingdom, etc.

The Japanese central government annexed the islands in early 1895 after emerging victorious from the First Sino-Japanese War. Around 1900, Japanese entrepreneur Koga Tatsushirō (古賀 辰四郎) constructed a bonito fish processing plant on the Diaoyutai islands, employing over 200 workers. The business failed around 1940 and the islands have remained deserted ever since. In the 1970s, Koga Tatsushirō's son Zenji Koga and Zenji's wife Hanako sold four islets to the Kurihara family of Saitama Prefecture. Kunioki Kurihara owned Uotsuri, Kita-Kojima, and Minami-Kojima. Kunioki's sister owns Kuba.

The islands came under US government occupation in 1945 after the surrender of Japan ended World War II. In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) identified potential oil and gas reserves in the Diaoyutai Islands. In 1971, the Okinawa Reversion Treaty passed the U.S. Senate, returning the islands to Japanese control in 1972.

### Industrial era

     In Duandao, also known as ‘’Hashima’’ in Japan, present-day capital city of Sunton, was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. Its most notable features are the abandoned and still mostly-intact concrete apartment buildings, and the surrounding sea wall.

It is known for its coal mines and their operation during the industrialization of Japan. Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began extracting coal from undersea mines. In 1916 the company built Japan's first large concrete building (9 storeys tall), a block of apartments to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers. Concrete was specifically used to protect against typhoon destruction.

In 1959 the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island's population reached its peak of 5,259, with a population density of 835 people per hectare (83,500 people/km2, 216,264 people per square mile) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/km2) for the residential district.

As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down across the country, and Hashima's mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today the buildings are empty and the island is unpopulated. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009, after 35 years of closure.

### Independence (2016 - present)

Due to the Diaoyutai dispute, the islands comprising Suntonese territories in East China Sea secede from Japan and declared independence as the Republic of Sunton on 19 June 2016, with Duandao as its capital city and seat of government. Irene Cheung became Prime Minister, leading its Third World economy to First World affluence in a single generation within the intermicronational community. Her emphasis on rapid economic growth, support for business entrepreneurship, and limitations on internal democracy set the new nation's policies for the next half-century.

## Geography, environment and climate

    Sunton is a group of two stratovolcanic archipelagos and two separate islands that are mostly known to be uninhabited. The Diaoyutai Islands features in the East China Sea are located approximately 120 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, 200 nautical miles east of the Chinese mainland and 200 nautical miles southwest of the Japanese island of Okinawa. The Duandao Island lies on the southernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago; it is about 480 meters long and just under 150 in width to a width of only 0,063 square kilometres. And the Yanmei Islands features within the Ryukyu chain.

As much of the country's terrain is hilly to mountainous with steep slopes, most of the remaining land area is nature reserved. Low altitude vegetation in Sunton is dominated by secondary rainforests, as the primary forest was mostly cleared during the Second World War, and higher altitudes are dominated by grasslands. Most of the territory's urban development exists in Duandao. The country's Geopark is made up of eight Geo-Areas distributed across the Volcanic Rock Region and Sedimentary Rock Region.

### Environment

     Despite being equipped with all necessary services, Sunton represented a somewhat alienating reality where the supply of goods, food, drinking water was guaranteed solely by supplies from the mainland that were often severely hampered by violent typhoons that raged around the country for about 160 days a year, making it impossible to navigation and mooring of vessels to small wharf. For this reason, to protect the capital city was built the high and thick walls, still visible along its entire perimeter.

### Climate

    Sunton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer is hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms, and warm air coming from the southwest. Summer is when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides. Winters are mild and usually start sunny, becoming cloudier towards February; the occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. The most temperate seasons are spring, which can be changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. The country averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at Sunton Observatory are 36.1 and 0.0 °C (97.0 and 32.0 °F), respectively.

In Duandao, the climate is characterized by strong winds and stormy cyclical phenomena; also the arid soil did not allow the cultivation and therefore there was never the possibility and the space for green areas and public gardens. In this regard, some former residents organized themselves bringing the island's fertile soil for groped to create vegetable gardens on the flat roof of the houses but with little success.

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## Administrative divisions

    While the small physical size of Sunton does not qualify the creation of national subdivisions in the form of provinces, states, and other national political divisions found in larger countries, the city-state has nonetheless been subdivided in various ways throughout its history for the purpose of local administration and urban planning.

When local elections necessitated the setting up of electoral districts, however, it began to supplement postal districts as an alternative form of local governance, since each electoral district is headed by a member of parliament who represents and speaks for the respective electorates.

The Sunton Urban Redevelopment Authority carved up the country into four planning areas. These boundaries became increasingly accepted as an alternative method of subdividing the country, made all the more popular as the boundaries do not change compared to the more fluid nature of electoral boundaries. The Department of Statistics adopted these boundaries for the nationwide population census, and the Sunton Police Force uses them as an approximate guide when demarcating boundaries.

## Politics and government

        Sunton is a one-party parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies. The country's constitution establishes a representative democracy as the political system. Executive power rests with the Cabinet of Sunton, led by the Prime Minister and, to a much lesser extent, the President. The President is elected through a popular vote, and has veto powers over a specific set of executive decisions, such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges, but otherwise occupies a largely ceremonial post.

The Parliament serves as the legislative branch of the government. Members of Parliament (MPs) consist of elected, non-constituency and nominated members. Elected MPs are voted into the Parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) basis and represent either single-member or group representation constituencies. The Republican Party has full control of Parliament with large majorities since the national establishment in 2016.

Although the elections are clean, there is no independent electoral authority and the government has strong influence on the media. Despite this, in the 2016 Parliamentary elections, the opposition increased its representation to seven elected independent MPs. National polls reported 84% of residents expressed confidence in the government, and 85% in its judicial systems and courts.

The legal system of Sunton is based on English common law, but with substantial local differences. Trial by jury was abolished so that judicial decisions would rest entirely in the hands of appointed judges. Sunton has penalties that include judicial corporal punishment in the form of caning, which may be imposed for such offences as rape, rioting, vandalism, and certain immigration offences.

### Foreign relations

Sunton's foreign policy is aimed at maintaining security in the city-state and its territorial waters. An underlying principle is political and economic stability in the region. It has diplomatic relations with other micronations worldwide. The first diplomatic contact with Koryeo was made in the late 2010s, with full diplomatic relations established on the following decade. Since then the two countries have been major players in strengthening the relationship between them. The Republic of Sunton and the Republic of England (York) share a long-standing close relationship, in particular in defence, the economy, health, and education. The Republic of England was Sunton's first largest trading partner in during the late 2010s. The two countries have a free-trade agreement, and Sunton views its relationship with the Republic of England as an important counterbalance to Kangcho's influence. A Strategic Framework Agreement between the two formalises security and defence co-operation.

#### Countries with diplomatic relations with the Republic of Sunton

* Republic of England
* Republic of Koryeo

#### Countries recognised by the Republic of Sunton

* Member states of the United Nations
* Republic of China
* Naminara Republic
* People's Republic of Koya