The status is controversial,
it's similar to Catalunya in Spain (see what happened to Catalan leader Puigdemont) or Flanders in Belgium, but Taiwan is not officially a country.
I think that if someone called Fort-de-France a country, France would correct them.
On the other side of the spectrum, if someone says that Vatican and San Marino are Italy, they would protest.
Yes, Spain would protest if you said Catalunya is a country, but you likely wouldn't be forced to make a public apology to protect your business in Spain.
I don't know much about catalonia or flanders, but don't they participate in the national government? Dissimilarly, taiwan hasn't participated in the chinese government? Correct me if I'm wrong, I've been under the impression they are not integrated with the mainland in any meaningful way governmentally.
I was looking it up as you replied and yeah, it seems like spain has judicial jurisdiction over catalonia and that is it. Huh. Thanks for the response.
This is disingenuous. You can't seriously claim there is no difference between Catalonia and Taiwan in their relationship to the broader national entity.
I didn't say there is no difference, I've specifically said that their status is similar.
Catalunya has a quite conflictual relationship with Spain and the level of conflict has raised in the past few years.
Catalonia is not a country, Taiwan is not a country.
Some of us might think that they deserve to be independent, but that's not their current political status, so calling Taiwan a country is technically wrong, just like calling Catalonia a country.
In this specific example, if John Cena said that Catalonia is a country, Spain would have protested and probably asked Cena to correct himself.
I mean, I understand that in US Taiwan is recognized as a country, in Italy Palestin is recognized as such too, but they are not officially sovereign countries and protest from mainland are to be expected because it's a very complicated international matter and of course China uses all the tools they have to support their position, just like the US.
Do you remember what happened when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel capital?
Conflicts over sovereignty on land are as old as the human race.
But it isn't.
Officially Taiwan is not a sovereign country.
The status is controversial, it's similar to Catalunya in Spain (see what happened to Catalan leader Puigdemont) or Flanders in Belgium, but Taiwan is not officially a country.
I think that if someone called Fort-de-France a country, France would correct them.
On the other side of the spectrum, if someone says that Vatican and San Marino are Italy, they would protest.
China is not dissimilar from USA In this regards.