Discover

The current term of 'Two Chinas' is described by some people for the following situation, although PRC government only considers itself as the one and only China in the world.

★ Republic of China (ROC) - established in 1912, currently occupying Taiwan province.

★ People's Republic of China (PRC) - establish in 1949, currently occupying provinces in Mainland China.

Contents

1912 to 1949

Current situation

See also

1912 to 1949

The Republic of China was founded in 1912, with Kuomintang being the major political party of that time. In 1921, Communist Party of China was founded in Shanghai.
On November 7th 1931, the anniversary day of the 1917 Russian Bolshevik Revolution, Chinese Soviet Republic was founded by the Chinese communist party, while the Nationalist Chinese government was still in control of the whole China. Hence, the first occurrence of "Two Chinas." It has its own government, capital, national bank, even printed its own money with Lenin's head on the money back. However, the republic was destroyed by the nationalist army soon after. Two Chinas phenomena briefly became one China again.
After the Chinese Civil War, the communist party took control of the Mainland China, founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Kuomintang moved the Republic of China to Taiwan province. The Communist party of China refuses to recognise the government of Republic of China in Taiwan, and claims that the Republic of China ceased to exist after 1949. However, the government in Taiwan still calls itself as the Republic of China.
Since the Government of the People's Republic of China has never gained conrol of Taiwan, and Republic of China remains its sovereignty there. In reality, there are two Chinas co-existing independently from each other, hence the term of "Two Chinas."

Current situation

The Republic of China (on Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (on mainland China) do not officially recognise each other's sovereignty. The Republic of China officially still claiming its sovereignty over mainland whereas People's Republic of China claims vice versa.
The Government of People's Republic of China strongly suppresses both the practice of considering the fact Republic of China is an independent country and the use of the term "Two Chinas". Despite in reality People's Republic of China has no control over Republic of China on Taiwan, it continue to promote the idea that Taiwan is part of People's Republic of China through propaganda, censorship and other diplomatic means. For example, the People's Republic of China insists that in other to establish diplomatic relations with them, one country must end its diplomatic relations with Republic of China and recongise the One China Policy . People's Republic of China also use its international influence to prohibit Republic of China entering international event such as the Olympic Games with its official name. Instead, Republic of China was forced to adopt the name of Chinese Taipei when entering such events since 1980s. 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."
Republic of China, on the other hand, despite officially claiming its sovereignty over mainland, does not suppress the use of the term "Two Chinas".
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.

See also

★ Chinese government

★ Politics of China

★ Chinese Political Parties

★ Desinicization