Does it count if you support the PRC territory reunited under the auspices of the ROC?
People can choose how they talk about the region and how people talk about some thing frames how folks think about it.
The PRC wants to guide how people view its claims. On what basis is a different claim any less valid?
Wouldn’t that approach needlessly advantage genocidaires?
1. Taiwan is a single province of China, not a large split of the country like happened in Germany, Korea, Vietnam. In the US that would be like if a small state split from the rest.
2. Perhaps more importantly, the PRC considers that the ROC ceased to exist in 1949 and was fully superseded by the PRC. So Taiwan is really just a province of the PRC and must be referred to as such in order to walk the political/rhetorical line. For historical reasons they are very touchy about giving the impression that China is split into several states.
No. Taiwan is not part of China. For 200 years the Qing dynasty did nothing with Taiwan. It never ruled it, never controlled the people. In 1887 the decided oneday “let’s call Taiwan a Provence”
This is the equivalent of a bunch of Americans moving to Canada and after a couple of generations America saying “let’s call Canada a state”
When the Japanese invaded Taiwan, the Qing dynasty threw in the towel immediately and said “yeah we don’t care it’s yours”. Japan then ruled Taiwan with an iron fist, implementing law and order, education, infrastructure, and teaching Japanese.
At no point in history has china ever ruled over Taiwan.
Taiwan is not a Provence.
However, it is indeed historically and factually a province of China. This is actually internationally recognised and that's why in 1945 it was retroceded by Japan to the Republic of China, where it remains.
If you want to nit-pick I will grant you that between 1683 and 1887 it was part of Fujian province rather that being an administrative province in its own right.
> This is the equivalent of a bunch of Americans moving to Canada and after a couple of generations America saying “let’s call Canada a state”
No, this is equivalent to Americans moving to Hawaii and calling it a state...
And in fact, China took over Taiwan to counter Europeans who were seizing all the land they could all over the world, and tried to seize Taiwan as well.
> At no point in history has china ever ruled over Taiwan.
Formally it did between 1683 and 1895, and then it has been since 1945.
A number of Taiwanese people are opposed to any reunification and want Taiwan to be "Taiwan", but it's very biased to claim that this is what 'the people of Taiwan want' as if China was a foreign country, and is frankly a narrative pushed to weaken China, the PRC mainly but really China no matter the government (divide and conquer strategy).
The vast majority of people here in Taiwan don’t want to be part of china. Especially after Hong Kong and covid.
That's why there is internally (in Taiwan) a struggle of opinions between this and "independence".
Trying to ignore that 'China' is not the same as 'PRC' is disingenuous at some point... Like claiming that Taiwan was never a province of China...
Taiwan absolutely see themselves as heirs of Chinese culture and lineage.They are split on if they want to be the sole heir or share it with the PRC. They don't want to be part of the PRC, but they are and want to be Chinese.
So to this day most of the imperial furniture and art from the palace is on display not in Beijing but at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
The people who want Taiwan to be independent are the pragmatic lot who have given up on unification, on mainland China being part of the ROC, at least for the foreseeable future. I doubt any significant part of them want Taiwan to be part of the PRC.
Delineating the current nation state of the PRC from historical nation states and ethnicity is central to the discussion.
This problem was codified by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, which recognized the PRC as the only legitimate representation of a territory and people that the PRC government never controlled.
It is as if the the UN recognized South Sudan as the sole representative of all of all Sudan when it was admitted in 2011, or South Korea as the sole representative of all Korea in 1991.
Taiwan is the Republic of China, it was never ceded to the or part of the PRC.
I'm not sure what point your are making beyond agreeing with me, and the reality, that Taiwan is indeed part of China.
The point I am trying again and again to get across is that China does not imply PRC. For instance North Korea is part of Korea, South Korea is part of Korea, but North Korea is not part of South Korea.
Saying that Taiwan was never part of the PRC is true, and I mentioned it in another comment, but it is misleading.
It was a part of China.
But things change. The CCP took over the mainland but not Formosa, the rump state moved to Formosa, and these became two separate countries moving along different paths. Every year they grow farther and farther apart.
Now it's an independent country with its own government, population, currency, military, flag, land, economy, institutions, foreign policy, citizenship, and culture. They have their own academic system, their own universities, their own borders, legal system, constitution, etc.
However this country can't "declare" its own independence because of the threats of Chinese violence.
Well, that doesn't change the fact that it's a separate country. I may not "declare" that I am not a part of Roy Orbison's family, but that doesn't mean I'm part of that family.
You don't need to make a declaration of what is an obvious fact. You just go about your life with your own country and enjoy your freedom and prosperity. This will continue until China's government collapses and the threat of violence against Taiwan is gone, or until no one cares whether a declaration is made or not because the holdouts that still think that China and Taiwan can possibly be the same country will be so laughed at that no one will take them seriously.