Most of us know Taiwan as part of China. But in the past couple of years, there has been arugments over Taiwan beeing its own country. so is Taiwan officially a country? one thing we know for sure is that china doesnt want to lose a great profit like taiwan. on the other hand many "taiwanese" already sees themselve as an indepentdent counrty. Therefore Taiwan is just a island that 22million people live on, with no government. This is becoming a bigger and bigger problem to many celeberties promoting tourism in Taiwan. for insistance, popular taiwan music group, S.H.E announced that they were "taiwanese" a few years back. When asked "are you japanese?" they replied "no, we are taiwanese." making chinese very angry. Since Taiwan isn't offically a country, "taiwanese" people doesn't exsits.
This is not the first time china has incounter something like this. Hong kong also wanted to become an independent country. but in the end Hong kong is still part of china. Making it obvious that China has taiwan in its grasp.
2008 olympics held in Beijing. S.H.E is invited to attened the big event. is this only a simple inventation? or is it another scam to unite china and taiwan together? Most likely another scam. One thing is for certin, If this pop trio go to the olympics troubles are bound to brew.
The link below shows the top three Taiwan celebs that "should be banned in china."
LinkCredit to: Kitmai of AsianFanatics.net
I'd like to refer this article concerning the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/08/09/200337338...
It's a matter, not because Taiwan is not a nation, but because China is telling everyone Taiwan is not a nation. The situation with Hong Kong is completely different, thus parallels cannot be drawn. Hong Kong knew it was going to be returned to China. Taiwan has been an independent entity since the KMT government relocated to Taiwan after Japanese withdrawal and China's takeover by communism. We have created one of the most successful democracies in the Pacific region. We've had a peaceful political handover between political parties.
China's claim on Taiwan is both irreverent and unethical. How would the British feel if America claimed England?
Actually, the Kuomintang said that Taiwan is a part of China. I think it has to do with trying to identify themselves as how the Chinese ought to be.
Officially, Taiwan is considered an autonomous region, and they have their own constitution and everything, but are still considered under Chinese jurisdiction.
--Mike
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I agree that china keeping Taiwan is unethical, but its still a big profit to china. also Many "Taiwanese" already hate china, visa versa for the chinese. If china ever let Taiwan go, there is Huge chances of war between the two.
~Take a step back, And have a good look see. This is Me.~
If China ever let Taiwan go, why would you think that there would be a war between the two? Currently China's agenda with hogging Taiwan seems more of a fear of losing face issue than anything sensible. If they let go of the Taiwan issue, they're going to make their rule shaky. Their government is never ever expected to back down, not for anyone or anything. Currently they've been focused on hating the Japanese, and claiming Taiwan and Tibet (Not that the Tibet situation is exactly the same as Taiwan's.) All of these focuses are outward, so their people won't be able to see the problems inward. Their constant violation of human rights has made their regime increasingly shaky. If China ever lets go of Taiwan, I assure you, the Taiwanese would not want to start a war with China, since it's been what we've been hoping for - that they'd stop bugging us. Whoever throws the first missile, it'll never be us.
And tourism isn't the main capital for Taiwan, so it's not as important a revenue as you imply. Though I don't really get your stance on this issue or what you're trying to say concerning tourism.
To Mike,
The KMT, or Kuomingtang's stance is gradually changing. They're starting to realize how futile it is to hold on to the dream of uniting China under democracy, and how little support such an idea would hold in public opinion. I'm sorry if I don't really get what you're saying about jurisdiction - How is it that we're considered under Chinese jurisdiction when they have no influence over our policies, legal system and taxes? If they in any way influence us, it's through threats, and that's the action of a foreign nation.
And thanks to all who have shown support for Taiwan in their comments.
I have heard that China has verbally threatened Taiwan with militaristic force on multiple occasions. I hope that Taiwan does break free from a nation that obiously does not care about it's people. On a second not e I work at a Kroger butcher shop and on our packaged fish we have to put a sticker for country of origin and we have two seperate stickers for Taiwan and China. A third note is that in the heavy metal subculture, word is getting spread about the issue of Taiwan and China as on the United States tour of Ozzfest 2007 the bill features Taiwanese band, ChthoniC. The vocalist is known to be a very outspoken advocate for Taiwanese rights and the rejection of Chinese rule over Taiwan
---Mike Schilling---
Which country are you from? I have yet to meet a person that thinks Taiwan is part of China. Holy crap, not even the international students from China that I met at Johns Hopkins thought that Taiwan was part of China, they may believe that Taiwan should unify with China, but they sure don't believe Taiwan is part of China. If it was, then there wouldn't be any talks of unification.
"22million people live on, with no government"
WTF? Last time I checked, democracy is considered a form of government.
"china doesnt want to lose a great profit like taiwan"
What are you smoking? That's like saying the USA doesn't want to lose a great profit like the UK. What does Taiwan have to do with China and profit? Taiwan's money stays in Taiwan, why in the world would you think they would give it to China?
Taiwan might not be part of china per say, but chinese goverment still protest that taiwan isn't a independt country.
therefore its still with china. UK also had this problem with America. Britain used to be the powerhouse but after letting go of America, That is when the US became the powerhouse.
Taiwan might be samll but it's becoming very popular. and tourism is important to china. that is tawian's profit.
~make a step back, And have a good look see. This is Me.~
Tourism isn't that big in Taiwan but it is promoting a lot of it. this is leading them to become more popular.
The Japanese used to be the copycats of the Chinese. this was before japan have nuclear weapons. It was after they had nuclear weapons, that Chinese became stressed.
So, about wars between taiwan and china, not likely going to happen soon. but the hatred between the two sides is visible.
~Take a step back, And have a good look see. This is Me.~
You have to understand, you're talking about China as in PRC, Taiwan is not part of the PRC.
Legally Taiwan is still part of China, but so is Mainland China. South Korea and North Korea are part of Korea, but you wouldn't say something stupid as saying South Korea is part of North Korea or that North Korea is part of South Korea now would you?
Sure, China is against Taiwan becoming independent. But that's talking about becoming separate from China, not separate from People's Republic of China. Taiwan has always been separate from People's Republic of China, it is the People's Republic of China that broke apart from Taiwan (Republic of China). Is North Korea a country? Yes. Is South Korea a country? Yes. Aren't they both part of Korea? Yes. Is Taiwan a country? Yes. It has its own government, its own economy, its own military, its own currency, and many other things. Who the heck cares if China (People's Republic of China) doesn't recognize Taiwan as a country, that it is against Taiwan being independent? Over 20 countries in this world including Taiwan does not consider China (People's Republic of China) to be a country and Taiwan's constitution does not recognize the sovereignty or independence of China (PRC). By your logic of Taiwan not being a country, China is also not a country. China says Taiwan is not a country so it isn't, Taiwan says China isn't a country so China isn't. You should rethink of how you define a country.
As far as America and UK are concerned, before the US became independent they had to give tax to the UK and their governing members were chosen by the UK. Do you see the difference now? Taiwan's officials are not chosen by China (PRC) and they don't give tax to China (PRC). You see Taiwan invests in China and open factories and companies on the mainland, Taiwan is the largest foreign investor of China at this moment. China has no power over Taiwan, China needs Taiwan's permission to cross their boundaries, last time they send fighter planes into Taiwan's airspace, guess what happened? Taiwan shot them down with their F-16s. Wake up, smell the air. I'm for unification, but I'm not gonna say something retarded as Taiwan is part of China. You don't have to unify something that it already is a part of, that makes absolutely no sense.
I can see that you're supporting the ROC stance. It's dying though. Any form of recognition of Taiwan as ROC and thus a part of China is not only going to bind us to them tighter and restrict our options in our own matter-of-fact sovereignty, it's also against current facts and a giant lie. The facts are this: China is currently ruled by the PRC, and Taiwan is currently a democracy. This makes them separate entities. If we keep espousing this point of view, we're no better than the PRC calling Taiwan a province of China, since more countries recognize China as a country, this is going to have impact. And with the global trend of China advancing economically and gaining girth in global issues, telling other nations to reject China as a nation is too much to ask for. If our diplomats kept doing that, we would be left with no allies whatsoever. If we took as high handed a stance as China in this issue and requested the world to disacknowledge China (and their PRC government) as a country, we'd be laughed off the stage.
Even the KMT, or KuoMingTang, as been moving away from calling Taiwan ROC and removed eventual unification from their party constitution. Chiang Ka-Shek would roll over in his grave.
We've got to face certain facts. And the facts are this: China is not going to become a democracy soon. And if it unites with Taiwan under democracy right now, this is going to be detrimental to all of Taiwan's democratic developements and human rights. Even though we aren't perfect, and we can't say we don't have corruption, this problem is going to be exacerbated if we were to unite with China under democracy. China has had a long history of corruption and lack of transparent governing. This is not going to change overnight. It's going to take decades before China gains the atmosphere that'll make it respect human rights and public opinion to the point of it being good for Taiwan. Before that, it's best that Taiwan maintain it's independence from China.
To AznJust4U
"The Japanese used to be the copycats of the Chinese. this was before japan have nuclear weapons. It was after they had nuclear weapons, that Chinese became stressed."
I don't hear China asking Japan to destroy the nukes. I only hear China (or the PRC, not China itself, per se) using their state-controled media to stir up hatred for the Japanese. Though it's true that Japan should be more aware of what atrocities they committed during the war, especially considering human rights and POWs, they are still using this as an issue to funnel hatred.
And if I know China has nothing to fear from Japan becoming militarily aggressive again, than China, with all their experts, must know it too. Nukes are not a viable argument.
How far back are you talking about Japanese being copycats of the Chinese? Are you refering to how much Japanese culture rests on ancient Chinese culture? How is this relevant to the issue at hand?
You're right about Tourism. Our government is currently promoting this to gain recognition and support for our country. It's not becoming a main revenue any time soon, but it's useful for national interest.
Taiwan is a country of its own with its own government and constitution. Taiwan is the Republic of China and China is the People's Republic of China. Both claim to be the sole government of China. It used to be that all free nations recognized only Taiwan as the legitimate government of China, however, after 30 years or so, in the 70's, the US led the charge to recognize China as the legitimate government. For practical reasons, it has to be this way. However, China is a Communist government that does not listen to its own people so in terms of government, Taiwan is the only functional democracy.
Most free Chinese still recognize Taiwan as the only Chinese government, and the history and culture of China is still only continued in Taiwan. All of the culture and traditions of China was exported to Taiwan after the war. And when China engaged in their Cultural Revolution forbidding all Chinese to practice any traditions from the past for almost 20 years, Taiwan became the only country that actually practiced certain Chinese traditions as it was known for several thousand years.
Also, the tradition of Chinese writing is still carried on in Taiwan. All of China's books are censored. A writer published in Taiwan can be published in China, but they completely rewrite certain "subversive" parts using inferior authors and sometimes even change the author's name. The only good fiction comes from Taiwan or Hong Kong.
I wouldn't say there are no good fiction are in China, with so many people some are bound to be creative. Look at all the pseudo Harry Potter books that came out and sold so well in China. But most of the people don't touch politics, don't discuss politics, and bascially don't care. So they rarely, if ever, write about the government.
What I do find interesting is that Chinese either have very bad movie script translators, or they translate it all wrong on purpose. I look at western films like 007 translated in China and I get the sense that those translators don't even have to look at the original script to translate, they only look at the images and imagine what the speaker is saying. It's absolutely awful, they did Munich so bad I had to stop showing my classmates the film because it made no sense if you merely look at the captions.