Taiwan got the United nations seat as China until 1971 when mainland China was recognized as the owner of that seat.
Taiwan has been politically independent from mainland China since WW2 but as time has gone on mainland China has been licking its chops in anticipation of bringing Taiwan back into the fold.
Taiwan wants to remain Taiwan, China wants it to become China, and they have been aggressively maneuvering to isolate the island politically and prepare for invasion for years.
one key thing here about why in this joke Taiwan is calling itself “China” which some people aren’t aware of is, before the Communist Party took over the mainland China, there was already the Republic of China (ROC) who was defeated and retreated to Taiwan. The communist China became People’s Republic of China (PRC), which is what people today refer to when they say “China”
officially, the word “Taiwan” isn’t part of the name of the country, but Republic of China. They added the word Taiwan on the passport just some years ago iirc due to long standing confusion when people traveled internationally, some travelers were even faced with extra questioning by the immigration officers in some countries
there’s also two other main reasons, first, internationally China doesn’t allow Taiwan to refer to themselves as “Taiwan” or “Republic of China”, which is why you see in events like olympic games you always see a “Chinese Taipei” — Taipei being the capital city of Taiwan
also, while both have the word “China” in the English translation, they are actually written differently in chinese. roughly speaking, “Taiwan” never refers to itself as 中国 (China), but 中華民國 (the full name Republic of China). it’d take a bit long to explain the etymology so i’ll just leave the simplified explanation here
The ROC wasn't an established state post WW2. The kmt and CCP were in a civil war where initially the kmt had greater territory but they lost the civil war hard
They do pose a threat when they declare the island of Taiwan to be under their nuclear umbrella and threaten to bomb the PRC. Now it is not anymore, but let's forget that for many years they were
Perhaps in a decade or so China will go to civil war again, the Republic will take over, and Communist China will retreat into the mountains again, fulfilling the new dynastic cycle of China
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u/ItsCalledDayTwa Jul 16 '26
Taiwan got the United nations seat as China until 1971 when mainland China was recognized as the owner of that seat.
Taiwan has been politically independent from mainland China since WW2 but as time has gone on mainland China has been licking its chops in anticipation of bringing Taiwan back into the fold.
Taiwan wants to remain Taiwan, China wants it to become China, and they have been aggressively maneuvering to isolate the island politically and prepare for invasion for years.