page_title: Taiwan independence movement
section_title: Opposition to independence
hierarchical_section_title: Taiwan independence movement / Responses / Opposition to independence
caption_attribution_description: English: Anti-Taiwan independence protesters. Taken by RattleMan in Washington D.C. on October 20, 2005.
context_page_description: The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement to seek formal international recognition of Taiwan as an independent, sovereign nation and in opposition to Chinese unification.
  Currently, Taiwan's political status is ambiguous. Taiwan and other islands are currently under the control of the Republic of China, a state that conducts official diplomatic relations with and is recognized by fifteen United Nations-recognized countries. The current administration of the Republic of China maintains that Taiwan is already an independent country as the ROC and thus does not have to push for any sort of formal independence.
  The use of independence for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Republic of Taiwan, or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China and is already independent. Some supporters advocate the exclusion of Kinmen and Matsu, which are controlled by Taiwan but are part of mainland China.
context_section_description: The third view, put forward by the government of the PRC and Nationalists of the KMT, defines Taiwan independence as "splitting Taiwan from China, causing division of the nation and the people." What PRC claims by this statement is somewhat ambiguous according to supporters of Taiwanese independence, as some statements by the PRC seem to identify China solely and uncompromisingly with the PRC. Others propose a broader and more flexible definition suggesting that both mainland China and Taiwan are parts that form one cultural and geographic entity, although divided politically as a vestige of the Chinese Civil War. The PRC considers itself the sole legitimate government of all China, and the ROC to be a defunct entity replaced in the Communist revolution that succeeded in 1949. Therefore, assertions that the ROC is a sovereign state are construed as support for Taiwan independence, so are proposals to change the name of the ROC. Such a name change is met with even more disapproval since it rejects Taiwan as part of the greater China entity (as one side of a still-unresolved Chinese civil war). The ROC used to be recognized by the UN as the sole legal government of China until 1971. In that year, the UN Resolution 2758 was passed, and the PRC became recognized as the legal government of China by the UN. During PRC President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States on 20 April 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush reaffirmed to the world that the U.S. would uphold its "one China" policy. Chinese nationalists have called the Taiwan independence movement and its supporters to be hanjian (traitors).
caption: Anti-Taiwan independence protesters in Washington, D.C. during Lee Teng-hui's visit
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