> Taiwan was formed when a bunch of Chinese aristocrats fled the mainland. Taiwan was formed through various geological processes, inhabited by aboriginals, la

> Taiwan was formed when a bunch of Chinese aristocrats fled the mainland. Taiwan was formed through various geological processes, inhabited by aboriginals, later colonized by China during the Ming Dynasty, reclaimed by China during the Qing dynasty, conquered by Japan, claimed by the ROC after Japan was defeated in WW2, and established as the new center of the ROC government after the KMT lost the mainland in the Chinese Civil War. Taiwan did not spring into existence, fully formed, at the end of the Chinese Civil War. And calling the current government "a bunch of Chinese aristocrats" obscures that they were Jiang Jieshi, leader of the Republic of China, and his motley band of KMT officials. I don't say this to be pedantic, but to establish important context to what the situation in Taiwan actually is. > However, at this point, they were a fairly prosperous state, so China found it politically-expedient to turn it around and say: "Actually, Taiwan is part of China as they've been saying all these years. We will pull them back into the fold." The PRC did not "turn around". During the Chinese Civil War, they were in the process of finishing the job and taking Taiwan, but their lack of a real navy and the US eventually coming to Taiwan's defense made it difficult to complete. Officially, the PRC and ROC are still at war for control of China (no ceasefires have been signed), and the PRC occupies the mainland and the ROC occupies Taiwan. In other words, reunification has been both the PRC and the ROC's official stance since the start of the Chinese Civil War. > So Taiwan finally realized they really needed to give up this "we are part of China and the rightful rulers" and just become their own country. > People who frame Taiwan as being part of China (as parent did) are on the side of Mainland China. People who frame Taiwan as being an independent country (as many UN members do) are on the other side from Mainland China. Taiwan is not a very homogenous country. Taiwan is also a representative democracy, so its government is not very homogenous, either. Some Taiwanese people want things to stay the status quo, some Taiwanese people want reunification, and some Taiwanese people want other more complicated things. Some Taiwanese people love the KMT, some Taiwanese people were jailed and executed by the hundreds of thousands during the KMT's White Terror because they were suspected of disagreeing with the KMT's rule or being sympathetic to communism. Some Taiwanese people are aboriginals who hate that they've been dragged into this spat between Chinese people, some Taiwanese people want Japanese rule (Taiwan generally hates Japan the least out of all the territories occupied by Japan, because they were Japan's "model colony" and were treated well, e.g. they didn't have their women forced into sex slavery)... Mainland China is kind of homogenous in its support for reunification (well, even in the mainland there are plenty of people who don't care or prefer the status quo to war), but Taiwan can't really be said to have one opinion here. SOURCE: I'm Chinese