copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-12-12): Kinmen Island and the islands of Beigan and Nangan in the Matsu Islands are very close to the China coast, so it will be very advantageous for the PLA to deploy its forces. However, Taiwan probably has defense forces there numbering several thousand, many civilians live on these islands, a robust military command has been established, and there should be a certain stockpile of weapons, ammunitions, fuel, food, and other supplies. Therefore, the PLA will need to be prepared for a certain extent of damages. Furthermore, even if Kinmen is taken after strenuous efforts, the military significance of occupying this island will be less than seizing Penghu Island if the plan is to eventually capture Taiwan proper. International criticism of China may be more severe against the invasion of a large island with a substantial Taiwanese military presence than in the case of occupying Tungsha Island, especially if civilian casualties are involved in the invasion and occupation process. There is also risk that the U.S. forces may intervene in these battles.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-30): The PRC signaled its interest in permitting Fujian residents to resume tourism to Kinmen County while meeting with KMT officials. Restoring tourism to Kinmen after negotiation with the KMT would advance the PRC’s goals of economic integration and engendering support in Taiwan for KMT policies. Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office Song Tao met with Kinmen County Council Chairman Hung Yun-tien and Kinmen’s representative in the LY Jessica Chen Yu-jen on August 22 in Beijing to discuss strengthening exchanges between the mainland and Kinmen County. The discussions focused on the possibility of resuming tourism to Kinmen by Fujian residents, which Chen has outspokenly advocated for.[4] The PRC suspended individual tourism to Taiwan in 2019, citing poor cross-strait relations.[5] It then suspended group tours to Taiwan in 2020 during the pandemic and maintained the restrictions on Taiwan despite resuming group travel to more than 70 countries in August 2023.[6] The PRC recently resumed tourism to the Matsu Islands, another Taiwan-controlled territory close to the mainland, indicating a willingness to meet the demand for economic engagement in Taiwan’s economically vulnerable outlying islands.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): Islands, Kinmen Islands, Matsu Islands and a number of smaller islands, while China has been under the control of the authorities in Beijing. Beginning with the acceleration of Taiwan’s democratization in the late 1980s, many restrictions concerning civil exchanges with China have been lifted. Today, Taiwan is one of the biggest investors in China. Between 1991 and the end of December 2022, approved investment in [...] In light of geopolitical tensions, the government has been updating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland [...] Strait. As long as the Beijing authorities are willing to resolve cross-strait antagonism and improve cross-strait relations, Taiwan is willing to jointly promote meaningful dialogue on the basis of parity and dignity. Taiwan also looks forward to the gradual resumption of normal and orderly exchanges between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait when the pandemic is brought under control. Lastly, the government will continue deepening cooperation with the U.S., Japan and other like-minded countries to counter China’s threats to Taiwan, promote regional peace, stability and prosperity, and protect the nation’s interests.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-15): China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island as the Communists under Mao Zedong swept to power. [...] 1958 - Taiwan Strait Crisis. Communist China shells the Nationalist-controlled islands of Kinmen or Quemoy and the Matsu Islands to probe the extent of the US support for Taiwan. Air and attempted amphibious landings see about 1,000 troops killed. [...] 2022 - Relations between Taiwan and China deteriorate sharply following a visit to the island by US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. China carried out military exercises, including the firing of ballistic missiles, focussing on six zones around Taiwan, three of which overlap the island's territorial waters.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-11-08): In February, two undersea cables connecting Taiwan’s Matsu Island were unexpectedly severed, disrupting access to the internet for the island’s nearly 14,000 residents. While Taipei has refrained from formally accusing Beijing, it is widely believed that a Chinese fishing vessel and a separate freighter were responsible for the severing. Matsu Island has also seen a dramatic increase in the presence of Chinese sand-dredgers operating just off its shores, as well as in the waters near the center line of the Taiwan Strait. According to reports, more than 4,000 Chinese sand-dredgers and accompanying sand-transport vehicles were confronted by Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration in 2020 alone. Such activities not only literally reform the territory around Taiwan, but they also send a potent political message to the residents on Matsu and nearby Kinmen Island that the People’s Republic of China dominates the waters surrounding Taiwan.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-01): Following the Chinese Civil War, tensions remained high between the Republic of China (ROC) and the Chinese Communist Party. In 1950 with the Communists victorious, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was created and established in mainland China. The ROC was forced to relocate to Taiwan and the outlying islands of Penghu, Quemoy, and Matsu. However, no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, thus the civil war never formally ended. People have used this for justification of the PRC’s attack and capture of islands under the ROC’s jurisdiction. [...] Thus, the PRC and ROC built and strengthened their military forces on their respective sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Communists tried to pressure the ROC to abandon the islands. Eventually, the PRC began bombing the islands of Quemoy and Matsu heavily on August 23rd, 1958, while threatening an invasion. [...] These islands have always been considered part of China. In ’55, our military operation was designed to help the Nationalists withdraw from those islands, because they were considered too far away… [It was a] very limited operation, but it involved, at least implicitly, a greater commitment by us to the other offshores, the bigger ones, Quemoy and Matsu particularly.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-21): The PRC claims all of Taiwan and its associated waters as PRC territory. It had largely respected Taiwan’s de facto jurisdiction in waters around Kinmen and Matsu before 2024, however, and has cooperated with Taiwan on law enforcement.[9] In February 2024, following a tragic incident that killed two PRC fishermen in prohibited waters around Kinmen, the PRC explicitly denied the existence of any Taiwanese "prohibited and restricted waters." Beijing began asserting its right to conduct law enforcement patrols in these waters at will. Without the protective "bubbles" of their maritime boundaries, the Kinmen and Matsu islands are located entirely within the PRC’s internationally recognized territorial waters. The PRC wishes to integrate them fully. It has pursued a range of law enforcement, military, economic, legal, and other means to accomplish this end.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-07-01): The ongoing dispute has led to heightened military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, which geographically separates mainland China from the island of Taiwan. In the First Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954–55, the PRC shelled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, situated close to the mainland, in an unsuccessful attempt to deter the United States from signing a mutual defense treaty with the Nationalist government. Following the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, Taipei and Beijing reached a tacit understanding of a "median line," also called the center line, to guide rules of engagement and prevent miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait. The PRC repeated its artillery bombardment of Kinmen in 1958 during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. In response, the United States drew up plans for a nuclear strike on mainland China, demonstrating the Dwight Eisenhower administration’s Cold War commitment to Taiwan. The PRC fired live ammunition and missiles into Taiwan’s waters during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1995–96 to express disapproval of Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui’s visit to the United States.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-02-09): The past year saw yet more heated debate over definitions of what "one China" means. Beijing asserts that there is widespread international acceptance of and agreement with its "one China principle," which sees Taiwan as part of a Chinese state represented by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC accuses the United States of departing from what it claims is Washington’s long-standing acceptance of the PRC position, given U.S. efforts to improve cooperation and contact with Taipei. In reality, the United States’ "one China policy" states that Washington does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and merely "acknowledges" the existence of a Chinese position even as Washington officially recognizes the PRC as the government of China. The United States reserved the right to maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan as it sees fit. Taipei’s official position is that it is already independent as the Republic of China (Taiwan), whose jurisdiction covers Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other outlying islands.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-07-02): The PRC has long promoted increasing economic ties with the ROC in aid of broader unification goals. Historically, it has found strong support for economic development projects in the ROC-controlled offshore island groups of Kinmen (金门, Jinmen) and Matsu (马祖, Mazu) (Commonwealth Magazine, December 17, 2019; Taipei Times, July 29, 2012; Taipei Times, July 6, 2019), which were the first ROC territories to establish limited postal, transportation and trade links with China in the 2000s—the Three Mini-Links (小三通, xiao san tong). County magistrates in Kinmen and Matsu have also supported establishing water, electricity, natural gas and bridge links—the "New Four Links" (新四通, xin si tong) or "Four Mini-Links" (小四通, xiao si tong)—with China (China Brief, August 31, 2020; China News, February 13, 2019).
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-11-09): 1) The breadth of the territorial sea of the People's Republic of China shall be twelve nautical miles. This provision applies to all territories of the People's Republic of China, including the Chinese mainland and its coastal islands, as well as Taiwan and its surrounding islands, the Penghu Islands and all other islands belonging to China which are separated from the mainland and its coastal islands by the high seas. 2) China's territorial sea along the mainland and its coastal islands takes as its baseline the line composed of the straight lines connecting basepoints on the mainland coast and on the outermost of the coastal islands; the water area extending twelve nautical miles outward from this baseline is China's territorial sea. The water area inside the baseline, including Pohai Bay and Chiungchow Straits, are Chinese inland waters. The islands inside the baseline, including Tungyin Island, Kaoteng Island, the Matsu Islands, the Paichuan Islands, Wuchiu Island, the Greater and Lesser Quemoy Islands, Tatan Island, Erhtan Island and Tungting Island, are islands of the Chinese inland waters. [...] The Taiwan and Penghu areas are still occupied by the United States by armed force. This is unlawful encroachment on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the People's Republic of China.Taiwan, Penghu and such other areas are yet to be recovered, and the Government of the People's Republic of China has the right to recover these areas by all suitable means at a suitable time.
Claim: Matsu Islands is a territory of People's Republic of China (Matsu Islands, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-22): The PRC claims all of Taiwan and its associated waters as PRC territory. It had largely respected Taiwan’s de facto jurisdiction in waters around Kinmen and Matsu before 2024, however, and has cooperated with Taiwan on law enforcement.[ix] In February 2024, following a tragic incident that killed two PRC fishermen in prohibited waters around Kinmen, the PRC explicitly denied the existence of any Taiwanese "prohibited and restricted waters." Beijing began asserting its right to conduct law enforcement patrols in these waters at will. Without the protective "bubbles" of their maritime boundaries, the Kinmen and Matsu islands are located entirely within the PRC’s internationally recognized territorial waters. The PRC wishes to integrate them fully. It has pursued a range of law enforcement, military, economic, legal, and other means to accomplish this end.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-05-05): Pweto Territory is a territory in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The headquarters are in the town of Pweto. Geography [edit]Pweto is part of Haut-Katanga Province. It lies to the west and north of Lake Mweru on the border with Zambia. The Luvua River, a headstream of the Congo River, leaves the lake just west of the town of Pwetu to flow north its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro.[2] Other rivers flowing through the territory include the Lubule River, the Lumekele River and the Kilulishi River. The territory is subdivided into the following chiefdoms and sectors: Kiona-Nzini Chiefdom, Moero Sector, Mwenge Sector and Pweto Chiefdom[3] [...] Security issues [edit]Pweto Territory saw several combats during the Congo wars. With the cease fire, the front line between the RCD-Goma and the Forces Armées Congolaise cut off the north of Pweto from the south.[4] Although the civil war ended in 2003, the region has been severely damaged by the civil war and reconstruction has been slow. Most of the rural residents are returned refugees or internally displaced people from other regions. Basic government services are still not available, public infrastructure is in poor condition and the local economy is scarcely functional. Corruption and lack of confidence in stability are handicaps to investment.[5]
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-25): Pweto is a town in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the administrative center of Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted in both sides making more active efforts to achieve peace. Pweto and the surrounding region were devastated during the war. As of 2011[update] little had been done to restore infrastructure or rebuild the economy. The town is served by Pweto Airport. [...] Pweto today [edit]Pweto is the largest town between Moliro on the shore of Lake Tanganyika and the Katangan provincial capital Lubumbashi.[11] As of 2010[update] the population of Pweto was estimated at 24,767.[12] Although the civil war ended in 2003, the region has been severely damaged by the civil war and reconstruction has been slow. Basic government services are still not available, public infrastructure is in poor condition and the local economy is scarcely functional. Corruption and lack of confidence in stability are handicaps to investment.[13]
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-08-07): The team was deployed on 23 July at Chibanga, Kibanga, Kalubamba, Musosa, Luchinda and Pweto towns along the border of the two countries. [...] This showed that the triangle of land at the north-western point of eastern Zambia from Pweto to as far south as the Lunchinda River was under Zambia although the Belgian colonisers in the Congo had administered the area for many years as a matter of local convenience under a gentleman’s agreement. [...] This is provided for in the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Defence, Politics and Security (SIPO) whose objective is to create a peaceful and stable political and security environment through which the region will realise its objectives of socio-economic development, poverty eradication, and regional integration.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-03-04): Tshopo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Province is located in the northeast of the country. The surface area of Tshopo is 199,567 square kilometers, and according to 2005 data, the population of the province is 2,614,630. The population density is 13 / square kilometers, and the capital of the province is Kisangani. The district is situated on the Tshopo River. [...] It is one of the 26 provinces of the Congo-Central Democratic Republic of the Congo. The province is the most western part of the country. Congo-Central has a surface area of 53,920 square kilometers, and according to 2010 data, the population of the province is 4,522,942. The population density is 84 / square kilometers, and the capital of the province is Matadi. Congo Central is the only province in the country with an ocean coastline and has a narrow façade on the Atlantic Ocean. [...] Tanganyika is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the province east of the country. Tanganyika has an area of 134,940 square kilometers, and according to 2015 data, the population of the province is 3,035,852. The population density is 22 / square kilometers, and the capital of the province is Kalemie. The territory of the province, created in 2015, corresponds to the historic Nord-Katanga province, which existed in the early period of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2015-08-04): 1996-97 - Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment. Aftermath of Mobutu1997 May - Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture the capital, Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila installed as president. [...] 2009 January - Launch of joint DRCongo-Rwandan military operation against Tutsi rebels led by Laurent Nkunda. Campaign lasts five weeks.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-01-17): The Republic of the Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960, but its early years were marred by political and social instability. Col. Joseph MOBUTU seized power and declared himself president in a November 1965 coup. He subsequently changed his name - to MOBUTU Sese Seko - as well as that of the country - to Zaire. MOBUTU retained his position for 32 years through several sham elections, as well as through brutal force. Ethnic strife and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994 from conflict in Rwanda and Burundi, led in May 1997 to the toppling of the MOBUTU regime by a rebellion backed by Rwanda and Uganda and fronted by Laurent KABILA. KABILA renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but in August 1998 his regime was itself challenged by a second insurrection again backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe intervened to support KABILA's regime. In January 2001, KABILA was assassinated and his son, Joseph KABILA, was named head of state. [...] Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC)-Zambia: boundary commission continues discussions over Congolese-administered triangle of land on the right bank of the Lunkinda River claimed by Zambia near the DRC village of Pweto
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-05-30): 29 April 1961 [edit]Acting Administrative Secretary wrote to the Governor of Northern Rhodesia. He informed the Governor that there were 4 enclaves that were under the Belgian administration, Mpweto- Lunchinda included. The residents were forced to carry Congolese identity cards and been fully subjected to Belgian rule. Chiefs who were living within the sphere of Belgian control provided tribal control. [...] 30 April 1965 [edit]Education Minister John Mwanakatwe and Alex Shapi visited Mweru constituency. They were held at gunpoint and manhandled by the Congolese (Katangese) gendarmes after crossing the Lunchinda River at Chipungu. Despite explaining who they were, they were accused of being in Congolese territory. It was not until the following day that a senior Congolese official who spoke Chibemba saved them and apologised for their mistreatment. They crossed the Lunchinda in the knowledge that they were still in Zambian territory, as the maps showed. At this time, there was no clinic at Chipungu, so many Zambians sought medical facilities from the Congolese hospital at Mpweto. Even the Belgium Congolese franc was accepted currency in Chipungu area itself, as it was in Pweto. The fact was, Mwanakatwe was legitimately visiting his constituency, as far as the Zambian map showed.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-06): The Democratic Republic of the Congo,[b] also known as the DR Congo, the DRC, or Congo-Kinshasa, is a country in Central Africa. By land area the Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.
Claim: Lunchinda-Pweto Province is a territory of Democratic Republic of Congo (Lunchinda-Pweto Province, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (1999-02-22): Pweto Territory is a territory in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).The headquarters are in the town of Pweto.