bossel said:Can't really follow your line of argument here. Ideologically different countries cannot be different nations?
OK, since you like to look at definitions (IIRC), let's look at the CALD:
nationalist:
- a person who wants political independence for their country
nation:
nation
noun
1 [C] a country, especially when thought of as a large group of people living in one area with their own government, language, traditions, etc [...]
2a large group of people of the same race who share the same language, traditions and history, but who might not all live in one area
Germans are more complex a case than you seem to think. Ethnically Germans (well, ethnically German...,you could even say that there are several German ethnicities) are members of a number of different nations (Germany, Austria, Italy, etc.). Eg. although Austrians are ethnically German, nowadays they mostly have a certain national Austrian pride & most do not want to be part of Germany.
In the GDR & FRG of the time of re-unification you had a large number of people opposed to unity. Even now there is a large minority of people in Germany who would like to have the separation back (for varying reasons).
PR China consists of a large number of ethnicities, all part of one nation. Taiwanese may for a large part be ethnically Han-Chinese (don't remember the statistics at the moment), but that does not mean that they necessarily belong to the PRC. Even if all Taiwanese were ethnically Han, that would not mean that they need to be part of a greater China.
Wang said:Taiwan never belonged to the People's Republic of China for a moment.
Because the terms nation & country aren't completely distinct, they are interchangeable. There is even an overlap with ethnicity.Tonysoong said:Hard to follow your line of argument here,too.You seem to have failed to distinguish the two English words NATION and COUNTRY.
I'm not sure, you're understanding Wang correctly. I doubt that he denies the Chinese heritage of a large part of the Taiwanese population. Acc. to the CIA factbook: Taiwanese (including Hakka) 84%, mainland Chinese 14%, aborigine 2% [Taiwanese & m.Chinese are ethnically Han, I think]As for ethnical Germans, they do live in different countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, etc. But Wang seems to be trying to say that once a Chinese happens to be living in Taiwan, he should be regarded as a Taiwanese and not a Chinese any more.
Perhaps you should distinguish between Han-Chinese ethnicity & Chinese nationality? Could make it easier to come to an understanding with Wang.people in Taiwan are still Chinese just as the Cantonese are Chinese too. Wang might be too extremist in denying the Chinese ethnicity of the Taiwanese.
Not just diplomatic. I know a few Taiwanese, & they feel very distinct from China. If asked "Are you Taiwanese or Chinese?", the answer is usually "Taiwanese".Excluding Taiwan is just a deplomatic strategy, which many of us have miscinstrued.
Neither do I care whether China is a little bigger or smaller, but I do care for the right of self-determination.Actually, I really don't much care.
Wang said:The core of Taiwanese culture came from china but over the many years it has developed differently because of colonization, occupation and influence by various peoples. Therefore it is now a blend of all those sources.
The name Republic of China was brought to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang) in 1949 who lost a civil war against the communists of Mao Zedong and escaped to Taiwan.
If for example after ww2 the people in Taiwan were able to choose a name themselves then it would be nothing like ROC.
Wang said:What we need is democracy, freedom, respect for human rights and stop suppressing minorities, including religious minorities.
Being an independent country has nothing to do with if people like the culture or not. Let's take Singapore for an example. The majority of Singapore people are Chinese descendents. Culture-wise, they are quite Chinese. They enjoy Chinese new year, they celebrate Dragon Boat festival. They go to the ancestors tomb on Ching Ming Jie ツ青エ窶督セ节ツ。 They teach their children to be ツ孝顺ツ。 That's the Chinese culture in Singapore. But, Singapore is definitely not China. Speaking of if Taiwan has preserved some Chinese culture (Han culture from china). Taiwan is still using the Traditional Chinese characters and China has converted to the simplified ones. In this case, which one better preserve that culture? Let's take US as another example. The mainstream culture in the US is the Puritan from the Great Britain but US and UK are, of course, two independent countries. Let's put it this way, culture does not border-bound. There are also many immigrants bring their culture along to the US. They are also preserving the culture in another country. Of course Taiwan is not so China. The core of Taiwanese culture came from china but Taiwan also had much more exposure and influence from other cultures.
China's CNOOC Abandons Bid for Unocal Oil名無し said:
With oil prices at record-high levels, the bid sparked opposition from members of the U.S. Congress. Some politicians said losing control of some U.S.-owned oil assets could harm the nation's economy and security.
The parent company of CNOOC is controlled by the Chinese government.
Nothing strange about Japanese textbooks claiming that Senkaku belongs to Japan, the other way around too of course. That is the way how things are about disputed land.The Chinese government Friday lodged a strong protest against Japan's latest revision of a batch of new senior middle school textbooks regarding the Diaoyu Islands.
Country means more of an actual existing political entity, france is a country, china is a country, canada is a country.Because the terms nation & country aren't completely distinct, they are interchangeable. There is even an overlap with ethnicity.
Thanks for the effort, but if you'd read the previous to my last post, you'd have seen that an explanation wasn't necessary. The interchangeable-comment was specifically about my argument there.nurizeko said:I hope ive cleared it up for you Bossel, so while nation is interchangable with country, country isnt as free.
Oh well, Bavaria. Actually it's more like a country, they even call themselves Freistaat (free country/state). The distinction between country (Land) & state (Staat) in German is probably even less distinct than between country & nation in English, but my translation isn't really to the point, anyway.Germany if i stand correct is a federation of german states, so while federal germany is a country, bavaria and the likes are nations within germany.
↓China Bans Navigation inside Japan's Economic Zone
Chinese maritime authorities have issued a warning banning navigation in an area of the East China Sea that covers Japan's declared exclusive economic zone.
The area of the ban runs about 200 kilometers north to south and three kilometers wide on both sides of the median line that Japan says separates the two countries' waters. The area starts from China's natural gas field.
China's maritime safety administration says it is closing the area to ships to lay undersea pipeline and cables.
Last month, China rejected Japan's proposal to jointly develop natural gas resources in the East China Sea in waters on both sides of the median line. China instead proposed conducting joint development near Japan's Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China.
Bluff&bargain tactics, the nuclear submarine intrusion was a "technical error" too.China Moves Navigation Ban Zone North
China has notified Japan it will move north a navigation ban zone in the East China Sea it announced earlier, saying the location was wrong due to a technical error.
The correction excludes Japan's exclusive economic zone from an area the navigational ban will apply.
China's Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese government about the change on Monday night.
China's Maritime Affairs Bureau issued a warning last month that ships would be banned from an area in the East China Sea while it carries out work to lay pipelines as part of a natural gas development project.
Japan notified China that the designated area includes Japan's exclusive economic zone, and that enforcing the ban there would infringe on Japan's sovereignty and may also violate the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the coordinates given in the warning issued by Maritime authorities should have been slightly north, excluding Japan's exclusive economic zone.
don't get other things involved, I can talk about war crimes and millions of lifes lost during WWII in china.窶督シ窶督ウ窶堋オ said:NHK newsツ?ォBluff&bargain tactics, the nuclear submarine intrusion was a "technical error" too.
Japan-China Gas Talks End
Japan and China have again failed to narrow their differences over natural gas development in the East China Sea, but they have agreed to arrange a meeting of experts to discuss joint projects.
The sixth round of working-level talks was held in Beijing on Saturday and Sunday. The two sides discussed a Japanese proposal for a joint gas development project that would include areas straddling the median line between the two countries' exclusive economic zones.
The chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Kenichiro Sasae, told a news conference that the two sides had discussed the matter but failed to reach a compromise.
The Director General of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, Nobuyuki Kodaira, said he strongly urged China to stop the on-going development and provide relevant information.
But the two sides did agree to set up a meeting of geological and oil experts to explore the possibility of joint development projects.
They also agreed to step up contacts between their maritime authorities in view of the increased activities of ships and aircraft in the East China Sea.
The Chinese side promised to inform Japan in advance when a Chinese vessel passes Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Hong Kong Activists Leave Japan's Territorial Waters
The group of activists from Hong Kong that approached the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea have left Japan's territorial waters.
The Japan Coast Guard says the activists' vessel, Bao Diao Number 2, left Japanese waters before noon on Friday.
The ship entered Japanese waters near Uotsuri-jima, the largest of the Senkaku islands, at around 9:20 a.m.
The ship then stopped 13 kilometers west-southwest of the island, but began sailing west, away from the island.
The Coast Guard says patrol ships will continue to monitor the vessel to make sure it does not try to return.
The activists are the latest of a number of groups that have approached the Senkaku Islands to protest Japan's sovereignty of the territory. The islands are also claimed by China, and are called Diaoyu in Chinese.
Seven Chinese activists were arrested on suspicion of illegal entry on Uotsuri-jima in March 2004, and protesters from Taiwan threw stones at Japan Coast Guard patrol ships outside Japanese waters in August this year.
It was nothing more than yet another attention-seeking stage play by a young fenqing politician "long hair" Leung KwokHung, in order to get support of Hong Kong voters full of inferiority complex, chanting "Japanese pigs" mantra.pharaoh21 said:I don't get it. It should be the people from mainland China protesting about it, not HK.
This is simple.
Both Japan and China are United Nations member nations.
China should present it to International Court of Justice.
The reason why China does not do it is that China side does not have evidence of a territory of an own country.