From the article: "The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 and has long said it does not support a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan. It does, however, maintain unofficial relations with the self-governed island and remains its most important backer and arms supplier."

It is my understanding that Taiwan does not officially consider itself separate from China either. Rather, they hold themselves to be the true democratic government of the mainland.

[–] intelshill@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago

That's correct, but also even more absurd of a position.

[–] init@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Another interesting thing of note about Taiwan is that it claims the land of what is currently Mongolia iirc.

I've always found it interesting how intransigent some of the East Asian nations are. You have the Nk/Sk conflict that is only in an armistice, no official peace treaty, then you have PRC/Taiwan--also in armistice. Then, there are are hundreds of instances of inflexibility on China's part with internal minorities or border conflicts with India or Vietnam. Add to the the SCS and the Nine Dash Line. Japan also exhibits some of this inflexibility leading up to and after WW2, and the forced pacifism afterward, which has caused some self-inflicted problems with an armistice with Russia over the Kuril Islands.

I've always wondered if the tendency is cultural or something else that was learned over the millennia.