One Country on Each Side (simplified Chinese: 一边一国; traditional Chinese: 一邊一國; pinyin: yī biān yī guó) was a concept espoused by Chen Shui-bian, the former President of the Republic of China (2000-2008), regarding the political status of Taiwan. It emphasised that the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (commonly known as "Taiwan") are two different countries, (namely "One China, one Taiwan"), as opposed to two separate political entities within the same country of "China".
Chen used this phrase in an August 3, 2002, telecast to the annual conference of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations meeting in Tokyo when he stated that it needs to be clear that "with Taiwan and China on each side of the Taiwan Strait, each side is a country."[1] His statements were made in Taiwanese, as opposed to the Mandarin, and drew a barrage of criticism from the mainland Chinese press, which had previously shied away from the type of attacks it gave to Lee Teng-hui, who promoted a similar "Special state-to-state relations". The United States also expressed serious concerns over this concept, as the US felt that this concept appeared to have departed from Chen's earlier pledge of "Four Noes and One Without".[2]