system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What's the deal with Taiwan? Is it a country or state of China?

I've always assumed until recently that Taiwan was a country.  I have grown up seeing 'Made In Taiwan' the most behind 'Made In China' and just assumed it was a country.

But it's not officially recognised in some areas as a country?

Please explain.
gpt
It is complicated.

There are sort of two Chinas: The **Republic of China** commonly called Taiwan and the **People's Republic of China** commonly just called China.


The simplified version is that a while back there was a revolution and a bit of a civil war in China. There were the communist revolutionaries (PRC) on one side and the old government (ROC) on the other.

Both sides had a government and saw themselves as the rightful ruler of all of China. Eventually what was left of the old government was pushed back until they only had control over Taiwan and the communist had control over everything else.

On paper both governments even today claim the territory of both sides as their own and see the other as illegally occupying part of their country.

In practice they pretty much act as two distinct countries but because of those on paper claims it is difficult to treat them as such.

You can either recognize one China or the other, but not both as the same time because they are mutually exclusive.

This requires some very strong verbal gymnastics and pretending things aren't the way they are.