Two Chinas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled to deal with vandalism. If you are prevented from editing this article, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or create an account.

The concept of Two Chinas refers to the belief, held by some people in Taiwan and other parts of the world, that the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) are co-existing sovereign states, similar to the case with North Korea and South Korea.

History

The Republic of China was founded on January 1st of 1912. At that time, Kuomintang was the only major political party. In 1921, Communist Party of China was formed in Shanghai. After the Chinese Civil War, CPC took control of the Mainland China, and the Kuomintang followers moved to Taiwan. According to the current Communist government, the ROC ceased to exist after 1949. However, the government in Taiwan still calls itself the Republic of China. Hence, the name of "Two Chinas."

Current situation

The PRC government strongly opposes any ideas of separation of mainland China and Taiwan. It claims that it is the only government for the entire China which includes Taiwan. It also tends to add Chinese in front of everything from Taiwan. However, it refers Kuomintang (full name: Chinese Nationalist Party) which is currently only active on Taiwan as the "Taiwanese political party," not a "Chinese political party."

Several leaders in Taiwan have used similar phrases, such as Lee Teng-hui's Special state-to-state relations in 1999. The current President of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian also proposed the idea of One Country on Each Side in 2002.