Political status of Taiwan

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

There is a problem of two Chinas in the world. The People's Republic of China (China PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan ROC). Both governments claim control over all of China. The PRC claims control over the island of Taiwan (which is also known as Taiwan province). The ROC claims control over all of China, including 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, but China is still ruled by a communist government. There is no freedom in China. Although some people in Taiwan want to be reunited with China, none of them want to be united with a China that is not free. 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 China becomes free.

Today, because of pressure from the communist PRC government, most countries of the world recognize the PRC as China. Most countries however still have 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. So, there is a now a situation where both sides are not making any big changes.

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.

Currently, Kuomintang opposition officials have called President Chen to step down because he was said to have been involved in corruption cases.