BBC
bbc.com › news › world-asia-china-59900139
China and Taiwan: A really simple guide
January 8, 2024 - Then in 1945, after Japan lost World War Two, China took the island but now a nationalist government, led by General Chiang Kai-shek, was in power. This was at the height of a decades-long conflict between Chiang's forces and Mao Zedong's Communist Party. When the communists won in 1949, Chiang and what was left of the nationalist party, known as the Kuomintang or KMT, fled to Taiwan, where they ruled for several decades.
Indiatimes
indiatimes.com › home › explainers › news
Explained: The China-Taiwan Conflict
June 18, 2023 - There has been tensions between ... because, after the administration of Taiwan was transferred to the Republic of China from Japan, Taiwan has considered itself to be an independent democracy that is separate from the mainland China...
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relations between the People's Republic of China (mainland China) and Republic of China (Taiwan)
Factsheet
Country People's Republic of China
Taiwan
Taiwan
Country People's Republic of China
Taiwan
Taiwan
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Cross-strait_relations
Cross-strait relations - Wikipedia
September 2, 2005 - Since then, the relations between the governments in Beijing and Taipei have been characterized by limited contact, tensions, and instability. In the early years, military conflicts continued, while diplomatically both governments competed to be the "legitimate government of China". Since the democratization of Taiwan, the question regarding the political and legal status of Taiwan has shifted focus to the choice between political unification with the mainland or de jure Taiwanese independence.
U.S. Department of State
history.state.gov › milestones › 1953-1960 › taiwan-strait-crises
Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian
Tensions between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) in the 1950s resulted in armed conflict over strategic islands in the Taiwan Strait. On two separate occasions during the 1950s, the PRC bombed islands controlled by the ROC.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/explainlikeimfive › can someone explain the china/taiwan dispute like i'm five?
r/explainlikeimfive on Reddit: Can someone explain the China/Taiwan dispute like I'm five?
July 29, 2011 -
I am from mainland China but I have many Taiwanese friends. I have had a difficult time fully understanding the situation as most of my fellow mainlanders articulate a very vitriolic and patriotic position in support of PRC and most of my Taiwanese friends simply threaten to punch me in the face if I so much as imply that Taiwan is part of China proper.
The perspective of the PRC is pretty understandable given my background, but I don't understand Taiwan's position very well. Why are so they determined to stay separated? Are they seriously considering provoking a military conflict for the title? What kind of freedoms would they give up if they integrated back into the PRC? What legitimate claim does the ROC have to all of China? These are just some of the questions I have.
I am not pushing a political agenda; I just want to understand the whole picture a little better. Thanks very much.
Top answer 1 of 14
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I'm not expecting anyone to read this. The relationship between China and Taiwan is generally talked about under the name "Cross-Strait Relations" or something to that effect. The name comes from the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland china. A note: Mainland China is technically the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC). If you read other auxilliary information about this subject, you may encounter these terms. Let's start with some basic Chinese history. For about 300 years, starting in the 17th Century, China was ruled by what is referred to as the Qing/Manchu dynasty. The territory under the purview of the Qing administration included much of modern PRC and the island of Taiwan, among other things. However, by the late 19th Century, the Qing leadership had become largely ineffective, and Japan--a rising power--became embroiled in a conflict with China. We call that conflict the Sino-Japanese War. China lost, and as part of the peace agreement, China gave Taiwan to Japan. Japan took over leadership of Taiwan and held onto it until 1945, when they were defeated in WWII. During this time, Japan developed Taiwan's economy and elevated the standard of living for many of the Taiwanese people; Japan very much groomed Taiwan to be a part of Japan, and taught Taiwanese students the Japanese language and customs. However, when Japan lost WWII, they gave control of the island back to the new Republic of China, which was ruled by what is called the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang was a product of a new wave of Chinese nationalism, and they came into power in 1912, after a successful rebellion against the Qing dynasty. The Kuomintang (KMT) aspired to be a democracy, but was also fervently nationalistic. When they were given control over Taiwan, the KMT authority was especially harsh; anti-Mainland sentiment results from actions during this time period, most notably the "228 Incident" in 1947, in which the KMT massacred Taiwanese demonstrators who were angry about brutality by the KMT Tobacco Bureau (they killed an old lady who had contraband cigarettes and took her money). Back in Mainland China, the KMT, led by Chiang Kai-Shek had begun to experience some domestic difficulties that posed a greater problem than Taiwanese demonstrators: Mao Zedong, who led a party called the Communist Party of China (CPC), was vying with the KMT for control. The situation quickly moved from political maneuvering to outright civil war. By 1949, the Communists--who called their new nation the People's Republic of China--had taken control of the mainland, and the KMT was forced to retreat to Taiwan. At this point, the PRC was thwarted every time they tried to get to Taiwan, and the KMT dared not come out. They would remain in an official state of war until 1979. Despite some flare-ups, for the most part there was a tenuous peace (a cease-fire, more accurately). Obviously, trade and travel between the ROC and the PRC was nil. Most people expected that eventually, the PRC would just take Taiwan, and that would be that. Recall, though, that in the fifties, the US became increasingly agitated at the thought of Communist control of a sizeable military, political, or economic nation. The Korean War changed the Cross-Strait situation immensely. Politically, the US realized that it could not permit the Communists to take control of Taiwan, so President Truman ordered the US Navy to hang out in the Taiwan Strait and make sure nothing happened. Things stayed like this until 1978, when eventually the ROC began to allow its citizens to visit the PRC. Eventually, this led to more and more contact--though on a very gradual scale. Eventually both sides reached what is called the 1992 Consensus, in which both the PRC and ROC decided that they should just figure out how to make things work in the present, rather than decide questions about whether both sides were separate nations. The official stance of the ROC used to be that it wanted to eventually reunify with the PRC, but it had obviously issues with the framework of the PRC government. But around the time of the 1992 Consensus, the public and the government of Taiwan began to feel more strongly about independence. The Chinese government was not happy about this, and in 1996 they conducted a missile exercise intended to intimidate pro-independence parties in Taiwan. This led to a interstrait crisis and relations between Taipei and Beijing broke down. From 1998 until around 2008, the tone of the PRC shifted dramatically. They were insistent on the "one China policy," which means pretty much what it sounds like--that Taiwan and Mainland China should all be one big China. Now, they'd had this policy before, but the general idea of the 1992 Consensus meant that this policy had fallen far into the background. Hu Jintao, the president of the PRC, continued to threaten Taiwan militarily and attempted to isolate them diplomatically--essentially refusing to deal with other nations that they perceived to be validating the legitimacy of a Taiwanese government. Such actions by the PRC were due in part to the 2000 election in Taiwan of a man named Chen Shui-bian, who was not a member of the KMT (the first time that had happened). Shui-bian was very pro-independence, and he also generally disregarded the principle of the 1992 Consensus. Though in some rare cases, the ROC and PRC worked together, for the vast majority of the time neither side spoke to the other; rather, they spoke about the other. In 2008, the KMT won the election in Taiwan again, and after some negotiations with Jintao and the PRC leadership, the 1992 Consensus was agreed upon as a framework for future talks. Direct interstrait flights began again, trade picked up. The present situation, overly simplified: the PRC and the ROC will work together, but they don't necessarily trust one another. The PRC will still diplomatically attack any nation that seems to be legitimizing the ROC--Obama, for example, sold some anti-missle equipment to the ROC, and China retaliated by severing military ties with America (this was in 2010). The PRC is ready to invade Taiwan if they declare independence, develop WMDs, or if the ROC government is severely threatened by civil disorder. Now, to your questions: Why are they determined to stay separated? The PRC believes that the ROC is an illegitimate group taking control of PRC land, the ROC believes the inverse. Are they seriously considering provoking a military conflict for the title? It's unlikely that open warfare will come of the current diplomatic situation, but if circumstances were to change (see the last sentence of my last paragraph), warfare could be possible--but it would be the PRC would would attack, not the ROC. What kind of freedoms would they give up if they integrated back into the PRC? Mainly they'd lose the autonomy of being a semisovereign nation. What legitimate claim does the ROC have to all of China? Consider the history that I laid out. The KMT controls the ROC, and the KMT used to be the people that controlled all of China--present PRC included. To them, the CPC is an illegitimate group controlling parts of their land, but they don't have the military power to stop them.
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During the communist revolution, the Chinese leadership (the ones who were getting ousted, not the ones who were taking over) fled to Taiwan and set up their government there. For many years they acted as a government-in-exile, similar to the French during World War II. They held the Chinese seat at the UN for many years because the rest of the world took their time recognizing the new Chinese government. This is the basis of their claim to all of China, though I doubt that anyone actually takes their claim seriously anymore, even the Taiwanese public themselves. The idea of provoking a military conflict is likely political, but Taiwan has built up a significant military to deter China from simply walking in and taking over. Taiwan has become a liberal democracy over the last couple decades, something they believe they will lose if they were to become part of China. China also has a reputation in the international community for human rights violations.
BBC
bbc.com › news › world-asia-34729538
What's behind China-Taiwan tensions? - BBC News
October 14, 2024 - The exercises reinforce what is at the heart of the issue: China's claim over self-governed Taiwan. Beijing sees the island as a breakaway province that will, eventually, be part of the country, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
csis.org › csis programs › international security program › archives › asia division
Background and Overview | Cross-Strait Security Initiative | CSIS
The two groups, superficially working together, successfully unified China from the warlords in 1928 but quickly plummeted into open violent conflict. Despite a brief period of cooperation against the occupying Japanese Army during the 1930s, fighting between the KMT and CCP continued throughout the Second World War. On December 1, 1943, the heads of state from China, the United States, and Great Britain jointly signed the "Cairo Declaration" stipulating that: "all the territories Japan has seized from China, such as Manchuria, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, shall be restored to China."
Harvard Kennedy School
hks.harvard.edu › faculty-research › policy-topics › international-relations-security › understanding-relationship-between
Understanding the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan | Harvard Kennedy School
Today, the island of Taiwan, just a couple of hundred miles off the coast of China, is claimed by the People's Republic of China as an inalienable part of traditional Chinese territory. In contrast, Taiwan's population and leadership say that they operate under their own autonomous status. They have a very different system from what exists on the mainland—Taiwan is a liberal democracy and China, of course, is a one-party state.
Encyclopedia Britannica
britannica.com › world history › wars, battles & armed conflicts
Taiwan Strait crises | History, Facts, Map, & Significance | Britannica
May 9, 2024 - Taiwan Strait crises, a series of confrontations between the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) and the Republic of China (Taiwan; R.O.C.) across the Taiwan Strait that occurred from the 1950s through the early 2020s.
Geopolitical Monitor
geopoliticalmonitor.com › home › china-taiwan conflict: the historical view from taiwan
China-Taiwan Conflict: The Historical View from Taiwan | Geopolitical Monitor
October 8, 2025 - An equilibrium has prevailed across the Taiwan Strait for decades, where stakeholders accepted de facto if not de jure Taiwan sovereignty; the United States underwrote the island’s security by ensuring a qualitative military advantage via arms sales; and Taiwan was allowed to persist as the state that dared not speak its name. Diplomatic acrobatics like the 1992 Consensus – where each side accepted that there is one legitimate China without specifying whether that meant the Republic of China (Taiwan) or People’s Republic of China (China) – laid a groundwork for fruitful if basic cross-Strait economic and cultural exchanges.
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Political_status_of_Taiwan
Political status of Taiwan - Wikipedia
5 hours ago - The United States Department of Defense in a 2011 report stated that the primary mission of the PRC military is a possible military conflict with Taiwan, including also possible US military assistance. Although the risk of a crisis in the short-term is low, in the absence of new political developments, Taiwan will likely dominate future military modernization and planning. However, also other priorities are becoming increasingly prominent and possible due to increasing military resources. A number of mainland China's most advanced military systems are stationed in areas opposite Taiwan.
Profolus
profolus.com › home › causes of the china-taiwan conflict: explained
Causes of the China-Taiwan Conflict: Explained - Profolus
October 5, 2023 - These capabilities allowed the communist faction to execute offensive military campaigns in the northern cities of Shenyang and Changchun, territories in Pingjin, and forts in Dagu and Beiping. A series of successful military campaigns transpired from 1948 to 1949. The CPP capture the KMT capital in Nanjing on 23 April 1949. This forced the KMT government to retreat to Guangzhou from 15 October to 25 November 1949. The presence of KMT in the southern regions of China was effectively immaterial at this point. To understand the cause of the China-Taiwan Conflict, it is essential to see it as an extension of the historical conflict between the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party or CPP or between the nationalist faction and the communist faction that dominated the Chinese social and political scene in the 1920s until the 1940s.
Defense Priorities
defensepriorities.org › home › "target taiwan" › target taiwan: military risk from chinese conquest
Target Taiwan: Military risk from Chinese conquest - Defense Priorities
1 month ago - Taiwan does have strategic importance for China, but its corresponding lack of strategic value to the U.S. is another reason not to get involved in a conflict. Unfortunately, policymakers in Washington have often maintained the opposite. During the Biden administration, Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner stated that “Taiwan is located at a critical node within the first island chain, anchoring a network of U.S. allies and partners,” which explained ...
POLITICO
politico.eu › article › the-china-taiwan-dispute-explained-territory-semiconductors
The China-Taiwan dispute explained – POLITICO
December 23, 2022 - In this video, POLITICO’s China experts explore the origins of the dispute and the current drivers behind it. One Taiwanese company, TSMC, produces 92 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors making Taiwan an important economic prize.
Fox News
foxnews.com › politics › chinas-global-aggression-check-taiwan-tensions-military-posturing-us-response-2025
China’s global aggression check: Taiwan tensions, military posturing and US response in 2025
Unlike earlier shows of force, the late-year drills were widely interpreted as practice for coercive scenarios short of outright war — particularly a blockade or quarantine designed to strangle Taiwan economically and politically without triggering immediate global conflict. Chinese officials explicitly tied the escalation to Washington’s actions, pointing to a massive U.S. arms package approved in December — valued at roughly $11 billion and described as one of the largest such sales to Taiwan in years — as proof of what Beijing calls "foreign interference." XI JINPING HAILS 'UNSTOPPABLE' CHINA AS TRUMP ACCUSES BEIJING OF CONSPIRING AGAINST US
Published 3 weeks ago
Stanford University
news.stanford.edu › stories › 2022 › 08 › explaining-issues-u-s-china-taiwan
Explaining the issues between the U.S., China, and Taiwan | Stanford Report
Here, Mastro, whose research focuses on Chinese military and security policy and Asia-Pacific security issues among other topics, explains how the conflict between China and Taiwan escalated in the years after the 1911 Xinhai revolution and why it persists today.
Penn Today
penntoday.upenn.edu › news › rising-tension-between-china-and-taiwan-explained
Rising tension between China and Taiwan, explained | Penn Today
Developments in the last couple of years have sent possible signals that China is becoming less patient and more assertive. Although Xi Jinping still insists on the ‘one country, two systems’ model for reunification, that insistence has become more pointed and less flexible. The appeal of that model was never high in Taiwan, but it cratered when Hong Kong went through the phase that began in 2019 with the escalating conflict surrounding protests against a law that would facilitate extradition to the mainland, Beijing’s imposition of a dramatically far reaching national security law for Hong Kong, and the dismantling of the limited democracy that that Hong Kong had enjoyed.
DW
dw.com › en › china-taiwan-crisis › t-62746803
China-Taiwan crisis
Differences over Taiwan's status have flared tensions between China and Taiwan. China sees the island, which is governed independently, as a breakaway province.
TIME
time.com › world › diplomacy › what to know about japan and china’s spat over taiwan
What to Know About Japan and China’s Spat Over Taiwan | TIME
November 17, 2025 - The dispute “reveals that Beijing cannot let go of Taiwan at all, as the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China is so tied to the Taiwan issue,” Ryu Yongwook, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy ...
Bloomberg
bloomberg.com › opinion › articles › 2026-01-13 › a-taiwan-conflict-would-cost-china-that-won-t-stop-xi
A Taiwan Conflict Would Cost China. That Won’t Stop Xi - Bloomberg
1 week ago - Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades. Xi may well be prepared to pay a high price on Taiwan. ... Taiwan’s unification with China sits at the heart of President Xi Jinping’s ambitions. But the costs to Beijing of a conflict would be staggering — in lives lost, economic damage, military credibility and domestic stability.