The term
Two Chinas (traditional Chinese: 兩個中國; simplified Chinese: 两个中国; pinyin: liǎng gè Zhōngguó) currently refers to the two states with "
China" in their official names:
Background
In 1912,
Xuantong Emperor abdicated as a result of the
Xinhai Revolution and the
Republic of China was established by revolutionists led by Dr
Sun Yat-sen. From 1912 to 1949, China was scarred by
wars between warlords,
World War II,
Japanese invasion and the
Chinese Civil War. As the
Chinese Civil War ended in 1949,
Communist Party of China took control of
Mainland China and founded the
People's Republic of China. The
Government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in the same year.
Though fighting continued for the next several years, by the time of the
Korean War the lines of control were sharply drawn: the Communist-led
People's Republic of China government in
Beijing controlled most of mainland China, while the Kuomintang-led
Republic of China government, now in
Taipei, controlled the island of
Taiwan, some surrounding islands, and a number of islands off the coast of
Fujian. This stale-mate was enforced with the assistance of the
United States government which began deterring an invasion of Taiwan after the start of the
Korean War.
For many years, both governments contended to be the sole legitimate government of China. With the fighting largely over, the major battleground became the diplomatic. Before the 1970s, few foreign governments recognised the
People's Republic of China. The first governments to recognise it as the government of China were
Soviet bloc countries, members of the
non-aligned movement, and the
United Kingdom (1950). The catalyst to change came in 1971, when the
United Nations General Assembly expelled representatives of Chiang Kai-shek by refusing to recognise their accreditations as representatives of China. Recognition for the
People's Republic of China soon followed from most other governments, including the
United States. The
Republic of China continued to compete with the
People's Republic of China to be recognised as the legitimate government of China.
Since the 1990s, however, a rising movement of for formal recognition of Taiwanese independence has made the political status of Taiwan the dominant issue, replacing the debate about the legitimate government of China. One significant opinion in Taiwan is that the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China are both sovereign, thus forming "two Chinas", or "one China, one Taiwan". Former Republic of China President Chen Shui-bian subscribes to this theory, and accordingly has largely abandoned the campaign for the Republic of China to be recognised as the sole legitimate government of China. Under Chen, the ROC government was campaigning for the Republic of China to join the United Nations as representative of its effective territory — Taiwan and nearby islands — only. New President
Ma Ying-Jeou has ceased that push.
Current situation
The map shows the
One China policy in practice.
PRC (red);
ROC (blue); PRC only (pink); ROC only (cyan); informal ROC relations (lavender); None (gray).
The
Republic of China (which administers
Taiwan) and the
People's Republic of China (which administers
mainland China) do not officially recognise each other's sovereignty. The official position of the governments of both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China remain that there is only one sovereign entity of China, and that each of them represents the legitimate government of all of China - including both Taiwan and mainland China - and the other is illegitimate. However, in recent years, the rhetoric of the two governments have diverged significantly on the issue of "two China"s or "one China, one Taiwan".
People's Republic of China
The Government of the People's Republic of China strongly opposes the practice of treating the Republic of China as an independent country. The mainland China government has consistently opposed the notion of "two Chinas", instead maintaining that all of "China" is under a single, indivisible sovereignty. Under this principle, while the PRC has no
de facto control over territory administered by the ROC, the PRC nevertheless maintains that the territories controlled by both the PRC and ROC are part of the same, indivisible sovereign entity "China". Furthermore, under the
succession of states theory, the PRC maintains that it has succeeded the ROC as the government of "China", and thus the current ROC regime based in Taiwan is illegitimate and has been superseded.
Thus, for example, the PRC insists that in order for other countries to establish
diplomatic relations with it, that country must end its formal diplomatic relations with the ROC and recognise the
One China Policy. The PRC also uses its international influence to prohibit the ROC from entering international events such as the
Olympic Games under its official name. Instead, the ROC was forced to adopt the name
Chinese Taipei to enter such events since the 1980s. Furthermore, on press releases and other media, the PRC never refers to the ROC as such, instead referring to Taiwan as "China's Taiwan Province", and to the ROC government as "the Taiwan authority".
It should be noted, however, that the government of the PRC does not, as a matter of law, equate the PRC with China. For example, in the
Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China (2005), the PRC is referred to as "the State", which is distinct and separate from "China". Under that law, "the State", i.e. the PRC, is to seek reunification of "the Taiwan area" with the areas currently under the PRC's administration into a unified "China".
Republic of China
While the ROC still officially claims sovereignty over mainland China (as well as
Mongolia and some other territories), it no longer actively pursues these claims.
The emergence of the free speech and democracy in Taiwan movement and the resulting ability of the
Taiwan independence movement to gain ground has further complicated matters, with the PRC finding the notion of "Two Chinas" unpalatable, yet considering
Taiwan independence an even worse alternative. Handling of the issue has varied by administration now the democratic Republic of China has experienced several changes of leadership of the
Executive Yuan.
In 1999, then
President Lee Teng-hui defined the relationship as "
Special state-to-state relations".
President
Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) declared in 2002 that "
with Taiwan and China on each side of the Taiwan Strait, each side is a country". In 2003 he explained that "Taiwan is not a province of one country nor it is a state of another". The Chen administration took steps to use Taiwan internationally in the name of preventing confusion over the "two Chinas". For example, some Taiwanese have had difficulty traveling with "Republic of China" passports as officials mistook them for citizens of the People's Republic of China, so "Taiwan" has been added to the Republic of China passports.
In September 2008 President Ma Jing-jeou stated that the relations are neither between two Chinas nor two states, saying instead that it is a "
special relationship". Further, he stated that the sovereignty issues between the two cannot be resolved at present, but he quoted the '1992 Consensus', currently accepted by both sides, as a temporary measure until a solution becomes available. The spokesman for the ROC Presidential Office Wang Yu-chi () later clarified the President's statement and said that the relations are between two regions of one country, based on the ROC Constitutional position, the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area and the '1992 Consensus'.
Other uses
Chinese history is rarely as neat as it is portrayed and it was rare indeed for one dynasty to end calmly and give way quickly and smoothly to a new one. Dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they had been defeated.
As a result, there have been many periods when different regimes claimed to speak for all of China. For example, the southern
Song Dynasty, the Jurchen
Jin Dynasty, the Khitan
Liao Dynasty, and the Tangut
Western Xia all existed contemporaneously; likewise, the
Manchu Qing China co-existed with
Ming China from 1636 to 1644, while remnants of the Ming (known to historians as
Southern Ming) continued governance in certain areas until 1683, when Ming forces on Taiwan surrendered to the Qing.
See also
References and footnotes
Category:Chinese numbered policiesCategory:Cross-Strait interactionsvi:Hai nước Trung Quốczh:两个中国 
