[rahimnathwani]

Can provinces really get ccTLDs? I thought .tw existed because Taiwan has an ISO country code: http://www.iso.org/iso/country_names_and_code_elements

Having said that, I'm not sure why the UK (whose country code is GB) uses .uk

[rurounijones]

Because GB Is "Great Britain" (England, Scotland, Wales)[1] which does not include Northern Ireland.

UK is "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which is all four.

It was a politically motivated move basically.

[1] Lets not get pedantic here.

[MichaelGG]

IANA considers .tw to be "Taiwan, Province of China", as does that ISO link. As I understand, China pretty much bullied everyone else into not recognizing Taiwan so the rest of the world (like the UN) agrees Taiwan isn't a country. That's why one reason Microsoft asks for your Region, not country.

There appear to be other ccTLDs like .IO and .AQ that aren't countries. (Probably more.)

And I'm just being pedantic.

[rahimnathwani]

Both IO and AQ are ISO country codes as well. I'm not sure why.

[micampe]

Hong Kong has a ccTLD (and an ISO country code, and a currency) but is not a country, while still mostly working like one.