Political status of Taiwan
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Currently, there are two countries in the world that name themselves China. One is the People's Republic of China (China) , the other is the Republic of China (Taiwan). The PRC claims control over the island of Taiwan (which is also known as Taiwan province). The ROC includes all of China, including Taiwan and Mongolia.
People who live in Taiwan have different ideas. Taiwan has not been ruled by mainland China since 1949. Today, Taiwan has become a democracy. China, on the other hand, is ruled by a communist government. The communists' idea of freedom is different from what the democrats think, freedom should be. Although some people in Taiwan want to be reunited with Communists' China, almost none of them want to give up their ideas of freedom. Other people want Taiwan to formally become the Republic of Taiwan. But most of the people in Taiwan want to keep everything like it is now, at least until the ideas of freedom of Communist (Mainland) China change.
Today, most countries of the world recognize the PRC as China. This is because of the pressure Mainland China exerts on these countries. Most countries however still have a very close economic and cultural relationship with the people of Taiwan. The government of the PRC have said that if the people of Taiwan formally vote to become the Republic of Taiwan, they will invade Taiwan.
In March of 2004, China's government passed a law that will allow China to invade Taiwan if the people of Taiwan formally vote to become the Republic of Taiwan. This law hurts the feelings of the people in Taiwan very much, especially since the government of China does not rule Taiwan. It has caused even more people in Taiwan to not want to be reunited with China.
