Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

That's what they say about The Mainland and Taiwan. And with all this debate and news that's on tv, what do you think?
They've got different money, different politics, different rules and laws. I think that means that they are two different countries. BUT china says that they are China, and China's in it's own little bubble world where they think what they says goes.
So even with all these differences, how can they be one country?

[Capergirl]

I could never figure this out when I was in Taiwan and still can't. Other than a shared heritage and culture, I'm not sure what binds Taiwan to China. They have a democratic (albeit very corrupt) government, their own currency, their own laws, as you said naturegirl. They are completely independent. Seems like a country to me. However, China (and by that I mean the gov't) insists that Taiwan is a renegade province. In fact, most people here in Eastern Canada seem to believe that this is what China is. When I was moving to Taiwan in 1998, people said to me, "Oh, Taiwan...that's in China, right?"

In Taiwan, I asked many different people if Taiwan was a province of China or a separate country. I got a very mixed response. My Taiwanese co-workers (in their 20's mostly) vehemently defended the idea that Taiwan was a country, separate and distinct. The majority of older people (40's, 50's) seemed to believe that Taiwan was still a part of China. My students were utterly confused. In fact, they asked me! I said, "Well, what do you think?" They would shrug and just guess one or the other. They didn't know. But they are correct...no one really knows. It seems to be all about personal perception. It is what you think it is.

I say Taiwan is a country, for all of the reasons listed above. It actually bothers me to hear people call it a province of China, because that just seems illogical to me.

[Aristotle]

What binds Taiwan and China is the fact that they are both governed by racist criminals. The supreme leaders on both sides have little to no control over the territory they are supposed to govern.
Taiwan has a mock democracy and China has a mock communist dictatorship of the people.
In the end Taiwan is just another territory under the control of Chinese criminals. The people of Taiwan are not Chinese any more than the Tibetans or so many of the ethnic minorities controlled by the Chinese. Such matters are really irrelevant because the true control lies in the hands of a small group of Chinese crime lords/ businessmen.
When the communist party in Beijing finally gives under the pressure and allows business/ criminal leaders to control the communist party Taiwan and China will be unified in fact irrelevant of their names, politics or borders.