![]() As far as Beijing is concerned, Taiwan is a province of China that’s pretending to be independent and needs to be brought back into the fold.Īt first, the ROC in Taiwan was recognized by other nations as, well, China. But while the ROC eventually gave up on its ambitions, the PRC did not - hence the current conflict. Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, there were military skirmishes between the two, particularly around the small Taiwanese islands that lie close to the mainland. Meanwhile, the PRC swore to reclaim Taiwan as an integral part of its territory. The CCP, meanwhile, remained in power in what we now refer to in common parlance as “China,” or officially the People’s Republic of China, or PRC.įor years, the ROC planned to take back the mainland from its new base in Taiwan. In 1949, however, the Kuomintang, or KMT, the ruling party of the ROC state, was itself defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, and retreated to Taiwan, which it ruled as a one-party state for decades, during what was once the world’s longest period of martial law. The ROC was brought to Taiwan in 1945, when Japan, which had controlled the island as a colony since 1895, handed it back following World War II. ![]() The Republic of China, or ROC, was originally founded on the Chinese mainland in October 1911. Making Sense of the ROC, KMT, CCP and PRC The official name of Taiwan, however, is the Republic of China. ![]() The country we know as Taiwan - a mountainous island of 23 million people just across the Taiwan Strait from southern China - is generally referred to as “Taiwan” in common parlance, whether this is in Chinese or English. In this sense, Taiwan lacks de jure independence, meaning independence that is recognized by other countries. Zappa would surely approve.īut while Taiwan is de facto independent, China claims it as part of its integral territory, and Taiwan is not recognized as a nation by the majority of the world’s countries. Is Taiwan a Country? Why the US and China Are So Worked Up Over the Island Closeįrank Zappa famously said, “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline.” Well, Taiwan has both of those - plus its own government, a president, its own currency, economy, and military, and it holds free and democratic elections.
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