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Comment by Pulcinella | Hacker News Reader

Taiwan calls itself China. The official name is literally the Republic of China. Both China and Taiwan agree that there is just one China, but disagree about what formal unification would or should look like.

Edit: The USA also agrees that there is one China, at least officially, though it’s not like the US doesn’t like to change its mind frequently. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Communiqué

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This is kind of dated view [1]. The median position in Taiwan is something like "change nothing" (status quo). Essentially nobody wants reunification in any realistic manner.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/taiwan-china-politics-identity-inde...

Both East Germany (when it existed) and West Germany were "Germany" and at least theoretically belived their government was the legitimate one for the whole territory, but products made in both were generally distinguished on their labels.

That isn't the issue here; the requested "Taiwan, China"/"Chinese Taipei" labeling does still distinguish the source.

At least from the East German side this was only the case for a short period during the 50s (the idea that there was only "one Germany" - which from the point of view of the GDR and Moscow should of course be a "socialist Germany").

In the 60's and early 70's the GDR dropped this idea and worked towards being recognized as its own souvereign state, and insisted that there are two German states (the GDR and the FRG).

This eventually resulted in the "Basic Treaty" from 1972, and the GDR joining the UNO in 1973 (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Treaty,_1972, or the much more detailed entry in the German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundlagenvertrag)

This is brought up often on discussions about Taiwan and China. To be clear, the vast majority of politicians in Taiwan do not actually believe they wield power over mainland China. That Taiwan still calls itself “Republic of China” is because mainland China has made it clear that a name change would be seen as a Declaration of Independence and a trigger for war.

The situation is akin to someone held hostage at gunpoint telling you they’re fine.

Everyone knows Taiwan is its own country, the US et all merely engage in the "one china" pretense to keep the PRC happy.

Yes, but the own country on the island of Taiwan is called the "Republic of China".

Because it would be a provocation to war to change the name to Taiwan. Politicians in Taiwan have tried to change the name and always chickened out because it’s a dumb reason to trigger an invasion.

The USA officially agrees - which is a critical qualifier when talking about political entities. The USA, colloquially, is miles from agreeing.

The Republic of China is or was the official name. The mainlander terrorists overthrew the legitimate government and that government fled to Taiwan. Some revisionism of history now has mainland China the "legitimate" China all due to Tricky Dicky visiting in 1972. The government of mainland China if full of contradictions.

As I understand it the PRC are also objecting to labelling that says "Republic of China" too, not just Taiwan.

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