[sofixa]

Hong Kong and Taiwan aren't countries. Both are historically Chinese territory and both are, as far as international law, the UN, and international recognition are concerned, Chinese land.

Hong Kong was supposed to be a separate administrative region according to the treaty with the UK, which has been violated by China, but it was never a country.

Chinese land -> colony -> autonomous Chinese region -> China

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is the party that lost the Chinese Civil war and ran away to an island which is considered a part of China ( Taiwan, Formosa before that) even if it was occupied by the Japanese after the first Sino-Japanese war. To this day, both PRC and ROC claim they are the sole China. Everyone agrees the PRC is the sole China.

Recently there has been a shift in Taiwan, with a new party in power, and generally people there seem to be more in favour of abandoning the ROC and China claims, and just being an independent country called Taiwan. Sadly that won't be accepted by the PRC, since, you know, they claim Taiwan is theirs ( and it legally still is considered to be).

For Americans, an analogy for Taiwan - the Confederacy lost the Civil war, but ran away to Hawai, assimilated the locals, calls itself the CSA and claims the whole of the US in its constitution.

[Ancapistani]

> Everyone agrees the PRC is the sole China.

This is not even close to true.

> For Americans, an analogy for Taiwan - the Confederacy lost the Civil war, but ran away to Hawai, assimilated the locals, calls itself the CSA and claims the whole of the US in its constitution.

A decent anology. If that happened, then many people on both sides would still being willing to fight and die for it today.

That sounds a lot like "two countries" to me.

[sofixa]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Taiwan#...

There are 15 states, the vast majority of which are microstates, which recognise Taiwan as "the China". Some countries have unofficial representation within, but don't officially recognise it. No country officially recognises Taiwan and China as separate countries. Should have said "almost everyone", not everyone, indeed.

> That sounds a lot like "two countries" to me

And absolutely is, in practice. However, from a legal/UN/international law standpoint, Taiwan isn't a country, it's a Chinese island. Due to the power and influence of the PRC, few countries, even the US, would dare to recognise an independent Taiwan replacing the ROC claim to the whole of China. And even then, China would still claim it's their land and they might even invade.