What Is China'a Beef Anyway?

China's claims to Taiwan is based on probably the most abstract logic ever formulated since a group of stoners thought it was cosmic that "god" spelled backwards is "dog".

Lets look at these claims...

First there is this idea that Taiwan has been a part of China since antiquity. I guess it depends on how you define "antiquity". Up until the 17th century, Taiwan was a Dutch or Portuguese colony. At that time, it was ponied up the Qing dynasty. Even then, it was never officially folded into the nation until the late 19th century only to be lost to the Japanese. After WWII, Taiwan was surrendered to the Allies (specifically the US) and allowed to be administered to by the ROC.

Keep this in mind for a second and refer to my first post. In 1952, all the kinks were worked out and a treaty was established between the US and Japan. The ROC not the PRC were invited. This treaty made official the terms of surrender signed 7 years before. Now, China buffs will add at this time Chiang Kai Shek signed a deal with Japan that gave Taiwan to the ROC. This is logically impossible since Japan would have been surrendering something it no longer had in its possession. Later, the ROC made all Taiwanese citizens Chinese citizens. Again, good for PR, bad for common sense. That would be like me going to Oklahoma and declaring all its citizens Kansans. Or going to Denver and claiming everyone to be Chiefs fans.

In the 1970's, as the PRC was coming out of its shell, it made Japan nullify all treaties with the ROC. OK, so what? Taiwan was a part of Japan when the ROC came to be in 1912 and was in limbo when the PRC came into power. So, at no point in the 20th century was Taiwan a part of modern China in any of its guises.

Another claim or reason the PRC claims Taiwan as its own is due to the racial and cultural make-up of the islands population which is a majority Han. OK. That's fair and accurate, but means nothing beyond that. Using that line of logic, then practically every nation in Europe can lay claim to the United States or Canada. Specifically England, Ireland, France and Germany.
I have argued with Chinese on this, and they say that is true. They also claim Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia as theirs as well.

These "Taiwanese Question" has been many times been asked, yet never been answered. After WWII, the China got tangled in a civil war and after that was over, the US got involved in Korea and after that the Cold War was in full swing and no one was in the mood to negotiate anything. Just let the status quo. Let Chiang be happy since he was needed to fight the commies so no move was really established to deal Taiwan to anyone. In 1972, things took an interesting twist and in 1979 things got more surreal, which we all know about, which brings me to this...

Taiwan is not independent in the strictest since. It is a territory. Of who is the question.
The PRC is out of the question. Whether they are a succession of the ROC or not is moot. Taiwan was never explicitly given to the ROC. The ROC does not rule Taiwan only in semantics. The US (along with most of the world) stopped believing that the ROC would make a comeback in China and no longer recognizes her as a legitimate government of anything. So...

Recently a group of Taiwanese tried to argue in US court that they were citizens of the US claiming many of the arguments I talk about here (i am not the originator of these arguments). The case was tossed on the grounds that it was a political question and not a legal question. This is true. Only congress can decide the citizenship status of a populus, not the courts. Citizens of US possessions are not automatically US citizens (save for Puerto Rico and a few others), some are special citizens and others are simply citizens of their home land.

What does this all mean? The US has never really ponied up to owning the island either. My guess it so it could make Chiang happy and keep him as an ally (see above) and now, to make nice with the Chinese, in a "we will never let the island become a part of China, but we will not make any move to claim it until you make a move." I guess this all means that Taiwan is independent by default.

But not really.