The Chinese nationalist party Kuomintang that was defeated when Mao Zedong’s communists triumphantly took control of China in 1949, retreated to Taiwan, a small island off the coast of mainland China, roughly halfway between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Almost 60 years later, the Taiwanese government still maintains it is the rightful government for all of China, and the official name of the state is not Taiwan, but Republic of China (RoC).
Over the years, this has become an increasingly hollow fiction, with most UN members having switched recognition to the mainland government, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This leaves Taiwan – not even a member of the United Nations - in a sort of existential limbo. Concurrently, the animus for declaring independence is growing in Taiwan – a move strongly discouraged by the communist government in Beijing, who are also keen to maintain the fiction of territorial unity between the island and the mainland… with of course their government the rightful one, also on Taiwan.
The length and breadth of that fiction can’t be illustrated any better than by this map, detailing the territorial claims of the RoC on the mainland. These revanchist claims are truly spectacular: not only do they include all the area presently under the control of the communist regime, but also many outlying areas controlled by China’s neighbours. The uproar over these claims would be much greater if Taiwan were in a position to actually (re)take these areas:
- The whole of Mongolia, now an independent republic;
- The Russian autonomous republic of Tannu-Tuva, called tannu Uriankhai by the RoC;
- A large part of Tajikistan, namely most of its autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan;
- A tiny sliver of Afghanistan’s Pamir corridor;
- Small areas of northern Pakistan and areas claimed by India;
- The eastern part of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan;
- Parts of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh;
- Parts of northern Myanmar (Birma);
- And a small piece of Russian-administered territory on China’s northeastern border.
In all, the RoC claims territory from no less than ten countries, including of course all the territory of its nemesis, the PRC. The sovereignty fiction is completed by labelling the area under Taipei’s control (Taiwan, but also some smaller islands – some quite close to the mainland) the ‘free area of the Republic of China’, Taipei its ‘Provisional capital’ and Nanking (on the mainland) its ‘Official capital’.
Special mention should be made of the Diaoyu islands (Senkaku islands in Japanese), which are claimed both by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and by the Republic of China (RoC) but are in fact administered by Japan, proving the old dictum that when two dogs fight over a bone, it’s often the third dog that runs off with it.
This map, to be found here on wikipedia, was sent in by John Halton, who comments: “From what I understand, the RoC can’t actually drop these claims, however unrealistic they may now be. To do so would be interpreted by the PRC as tantamount to a declaration of independence, which the PRC would regard as an act of war.”
China has always considered itself to be the Middle Kingdom, meaning that all others are barbarians. Barbarian being a political term.
China is constrained on the southern borders by countries that don’t like them, Vietnam in particular and geography plus India prevent any expansion to the southwest. East is Korea and Japan and untangling the bloody history between China and those neighbors is best left to them.
West and north however lay the vast treasures of Russia and the various former Soviet Republics. (Former for how long?) Raw materials for the rapidly growing consumers and space for tens millions of Chinese looking for an opportunity. It is worth noting that nothing China claims is ‘unrealistic’ only ‘impractical’ at this time.
Having said all that, an invasion of Taiwan falls into the category of ‘impractical’ short of nuclear force. The same cannot be said of Siberia as illegal immigration on a scale that dwarfs the problem in America has created a new China on both sides of the Russian border.
Comment by Brian — December 17, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
LOL! What a nostalgic map!
I’m turning to 33 years old, and this map was what I had to study during my primary and secondary school.
Even today about half of the population of Taiwan still dream about such a “Great China,” since they are against the fact that “Taiwan is an independent nation,” they must keep this dream, even to cooperate with the PRC people.
BTW, this map still omits some part. The RoC still claims that they hold the complete sovereignty over the “complete” South China Sea, including “all” the islets.
Comment by Daneel Lynn — December 17, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
Should the communist government in Beijing fall, how likely would Taiwan reunite with mainland China? Would a unity government ( likely not the Taiwanese government, though )encompassing Taiwan along with the mainland replace the communists? Or would Taiwan decide to forget about it and declare independence instead?
For the matter, if the communists fall, will Tibet and Xinjiang/Uyghurstan declare independence?
Comment by Inkan1969 — December 17, 2007 @ 6:09 pm
“Should the communist government in Beijing fall” …
think of Yougoslavia, only much more bloody …
Comment by Emil — December 17, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
Emil, well, I know about Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan. But would other parts of China want to break away?
Comment by Inkan1969 — December 17, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
I once had a professor from Taiwan who was very adamant about the claim over mainland China, although I don’t remember how it came up in class, since it was a math course…
Comment by Boznia — December 17, 2007 @ 8:28 pm
The last sentence in your post is fascinating! If Taiwan DROPS its claims to control ALL the mainland territory, THAT would be the same as declaring independence and war.
WOW! What a contorted, bizarre logic is at work here!
Comment by lichanos — December 17, 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Looks like the ROC would grant Hong Kong to the PRC, though, considering that Hong Kong was ceded to Britain prior to 1949 and ceded to the PRC by Britain.
Comment by dbomp — December 17, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
The right side of the map is concealed by the boxes always on the site.
Is there anything I can do about this?
Comment by Daniel Milton — December 17, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
To lichanos:
Yes, it is a extremely ridiculous logic, however, the Chinese people, including PRC citizens and KMT supporters in Taiwan still insist that it is right. Because to face the facts and drop these claims means the “independence” of Taiwan from China, and they won’t accept the situation.
Comment by Daneel Lynn — December 17, 2007 @ 11:36 pm
It is certainly true that historically, China — under all its governments — has had a lot of unresolved territorial disputes with its neighbors. The PRC now claims various islands that are also claimed by its Southeast Asian neighbors, as well as having some active disputes with Japan over islands. I believe it has resolved most of its claims that conflicted with those of Russia and the Central Asia sucessor states. it still occupies territory claimed by India. With regard to the position of Taipei on all this, I’d be interested to know the date of your source for the map. My impression is that the current Taiwan authorities, who have been democratically elected by the local population and are admittedly much more interested in the future of Taiwan than old claims of the KMT, claim only that they and their elected successors have the moral and legal right to govern Taiwan without threats from Beijing, and have long since conceded that they do not claim to be the government of all China, only that the long term relationship between Taiwan and (the rest of) China is yet to be determined. And I think they have also agreed that no government of China has any rightful claim to most of the territories on your map. I am quite sure this is the case with respect to Mongolia, at least. If they decline to waive claims formally, that may be the result of a disinclination to take purely symbolic steps that Beijing could treat as “interference” in its affairs. what the position of the opposition KMT on Taiwan is, I don’t know.
Comment by walt slocombe — December 18, 2007 @ 6:13 am
I wonder what claims the RoC have on Hong Kong and Macau?
Comment by Orange — December 18, 2007 @ 6:18 am
I was aware that the KMT side of the Taiwanese government still has these claims on its textbooks, but realistically they know they ain’t getting that land back.
Also, the KMT is for “eventual reunification” and does not want a “one country, two systems” situation like which Hong Kong has. And, as far as I know, neither side has taken concrete steps to arranging for either a transition to reunification or independence. So really, they’re stuck in the status quo as a default.
Comment by AltHistoryBuff — December 18, 2007 @ 10:45 am
You rock!!!
Comment by your greatest fan — December 18, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Great map, but not up to date. Rhe ROC recognized Mongolian independence, just a few years ago.
http://www.president.gov.tw/en/prog/news_release/print.php?id=1105499404
Comment by Yorick — December 18, 2007 @ 11:50 am
Perhaps TIBET should be colored, shouldnt it?
Comment by vicman — December 18, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
[...] 登入後看見這個 發佈於十二月 18, 2007 Diary http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/221-greater-china-made-in-taiwan/ [...]
Pingback by 登入後看見這個 « Insanity for Free — December 18, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
Before Nixon’s insane trip to China, most non-leftist Americans saw the Kuomintang on Taiwan as the Chinese government in exile (on a parallel with the Polish government in exile, etc., during World War II). The map doesn’t look strange to those who regard Communist governments as illegitimate.
Comment by Bob Hellam — December 19, 2007 @ 3:03 am
“Yes, it is a extremely ridiculous logic”
Thanks to thousands of years of history and tradition, the majority of Chinese has this “bizarr” sounding logic, which is, secession from or splitting the country is immoral. As a leader if you dont have the will to unify China you lose your legitimacy. This may sound really illogic to westerners but this is a big part of the reason why the Chinese nation could out-survive others. If you wish a splitted China, don’t count on the fall of the communists, there has never been a government who only wants a portion of the Chinese soil.
Comment by amemhotep — December 19, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
[...] Maps a few months ago, and I’m delighted to see that it’s now been published: the mind-boggling revanchist claims of Taiwan, covering the whole of the mainland People’s Republic of China, along with Mongolia*, Tibet [...]
Pingback by Confessing Evangelical » Blog Archive » The mouse that daren’t stop roaring — December 20, 2007 @ 12:42 am
The ROC effectively renounced all these claims under Lee Teng-hui back in 1991 (no war was declared). It is not a current map. To claim this is the way Taiwan currently thinks is to make a claim that is now almost two decades out of date. The current government only claims sovereignty over Taiwan and the surrounding islands.
However, this out of date map does have its uses. The key to understanding this map is to stop reading it as an ROC map and instead see it as the map of what many Chinese feel should be the basic configuration of all China. It’s important to see the grab to annex Taiwan — never part of the territory of any ethnic Chinese emperor — as part of a larger drive for “anti-imperialist” China to inflate itself out to the old Qing (Manchu) borders. This map simply codifies Chinese nationalist thinking. Note that it is only a basis, actual Chinese territorial dreams are much greater.
Another interesting misunderstanding is the post’s reading that the ROC claims “the whole of Mongolia”. One of the sad successes of modern Chinese propaganda is that while some actually hear and believe that China is divided, Mongolia actually is a divided country, half of which is currently under Chinese control and which China is hurriedly flooding with Chinese so that the Mongolians don’t try to take it back. But in our strange construction of the world, we never say Mongolia is a divided country, though it is, but we often say China is a divided country, though it is not. Given this, what is “the whole of Mongolia?”
Love the theme of the blog, however.
Michael
Comment by Michael Turton — December 20, 2007 @ 5:38 am
Michael: Fascinating comment. Thanks.
It sounds like Taiwan has accepted the de facto position, but has not formally renounced its claims. From the Republic of China article on Wikipedia:
The ROC has not constitutionally renounced sovereignty over Mainland China and Outer Mongolia, but President Lee Teng-hui announced in 1991 that his government does not dispute the fact that the Communist Party rules Mainland China.
OK, that’s from Wikipedia, so I’m open to being told it’s wrong. :-) But it fits with the overall status with Taiwan: that the PRC is prepared to tolerate (albeit with ill grace) Taiwan doing all sorts of things that are normally done by sovereign nations – holding elections, engaging in international trade, participating in the Olympics – but is highly sensitive to the underlying legal claims and the language that it used.
Strangemaps: thanks for posting this, and thanks for the HT. :-)
Comment by John H — December 20, 2007 @ 8:45 am
Michael:
Spot on. Likewise with the internal autonomous region of Tibet (the Tibet SAR does not encompass all Tibet-culture provinces — ironically, because of cultural suppression in the “autonomous” SAR, the culture is more vibrant in the surrounding “non-Tibetan” provinces).
Comment by Michel S. — December 20, 2007 @ 9:11 am
As absurd as it is now, this map was what I and many Taiwanese students learned during their school years (1945-1990s?), until recently when ROC drops its control claim of mainland China. In reality, China’s territory fluxes over its 5,000 years of history.
Throughout most of the history, Chinese territory only covered the central portion of this map. For example, Great Walls stretching from Hopeh Province to the southern border of the red Mongolia Area (see the map) typifies the northern and western historical Chinese border. Great Walls were built and re-built from 220BC to 1644 to repel northern barbarians, including the Mongols and the Manchurians.
Chinese like to fabricate and has written the Yuan and Ching dynasties into their history. In these dynasties, China was conquerored by the Mongols and the Manchurians. We were taught that the Han Chinese overthrow Mongolians and established Ming dynasty. In fact, the Mongol was not completely defeated; it still controlled a vast territory of India and other territories for almost a century after it lost central China. Likewise, Manchurians (Ching dynasty) forced Chinese to wear pigtails and appointed Manchurians officials to control Chinese territory, can be argued as non-Chinese Dynasty.
Taiwan was ceded by the Manchurian Empire to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after it was officially incorporated into Ching’s territory for 8 years. Japan controlled Taiwan for 50 years until 1945 when it surrendered to the Allies. Before that Taiwan was a fair game by imperialists, including Japan, Dutch, British and others. San Francisco Peace Treaty (1952) did not designate receivership for Taiwan and surrounding islets. Thus according to international laws, neither PROC, nor ROC has control over Taiwan despite their manipulated historical claims.
Currently, Taiwanese has de-facto control of Taiwan territory and recognized by 20 some smaller nations. US being the sole, principle conqueror leading the Japan’s surrender of Taiwan, has an obligation to clarify Taiwan’s international legal status and to bring Taiwan into the United Nations. In 2006, a case was filed in US court to suit US government’s negligence in taking care of Taiwan and its citizens, which the plaintiffs claim is part of US trust territory, because in SFPT, US did not designate any national ownership for Taiwan. This has created a flashpoint in Taiwan Strait and Taiwanese has been under the constant Chinese military threat. Thus according to the plaintiffs, US has more say regarding Taiwan’s de jure status than either ROC or PROC.
Comment by stan Yang — December 20, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
One more thing. The ROC as done away with the federal state government of Taiwan. This parallel government served the fiction that Taiwan was just one state in the nation that ROC purported to be. It would have been as if the United States was just California, but still had a separate state government of California. This was done away with around 2000.
Comment by elambend — December 20, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
The PRC government has never condoned the claim over Outer Mongolia or any territories outside its border by the Taiwan government. It has never given a shit about Taiwan’s recognization of Outer Mongolia. In the last 60 years the Taiwanese politicians, both pro- and anti-independence parites, has never let a chance slipped through their finger belittling the PRC government as traitors, Russian spies and puppets. Now you guys claim that the PRC does not allow Taiwan give up these claims. Where does it come?
Comment by Leo — December 22, 2007 @ 2:03 am
#19: True, perhaps, but “illogical to Westerners”? What would Mr. Abraham Lincoln think?
Comment by Nyx — December 23, 2007 @ 4:40 am
#27: The people of each of the states of the US voted to be joined to the Union, and Congress had voted to accept them. The outer territories of China are conquered territories.
Of course the US conquered much of its territory also, and there is kind of a “no takebacks” provision to this logic. But at least there is this symbolic consent to union, not just someone planting their flag on a piece of rock and saying “I claim this in the name of so-and-so.”
Comment by Wilson — December 23, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
What? No Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands?
Comment by Eugene — December 30, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Eugene: the Spratly and Paracel islands are footnoted in the map. Including ROC’s claims to them brings Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and possibly Brunei into the club of countries liable to be invaded by Taiwan.
Comment by mollymooly — January 4, 2008 @ 12:55 am
Michael: The ROC still has all of these claims as official – But in practice the government knows that it is limited to Taiwan, Kinmen, Pescadores, and Matsu.
Comment by Vikwackeeeger — January 18, 2008 @ 8:58 am
This basically is just the map of China, at the fall of the Qing [Manchu] Dynasty (1911). After that, China fell into turmoil, and was even split up to a certain extent among various warlords.
It took the ROC a while just to reunify China proper. While they were busy with this task, the USSR detached outer Mongolia. Then after that, they faced a Communist revolt, which kept them too busy to dispatch forces to Tibet. Then the Japanese invaded and took over Manchuria.
Thus, the ROC was never able to make good its claims before they lost the civil war to the Communists. So this map is really aspirational in nature — as in “This is what the ROC would be ruling today, if only they’d defeated those Communist bandits in 1949 instead of the other way around.”
Comment by Peacekeeper — January 19, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
I am looking for a map showing the plans of annexation of Siam/Thailand and Laos by China draw during the Chang-Kai-Sheik period. Also the map of the super-Tai state imagined by Mao to influence Thailand and Laos during the 60’s and 70’s. Anybody can help?
Comment by Atilio — January 29, 2008 @ 9:43 am
Here in China people are quite calm about Taiwan, they think reunification is just the matter of time.
Comment by Victor — February 16, 2008 @ 5:33 am
[...] 分類於 Uncategorized — accura88 @ 5:02 上午 221 – Greater China – Made in Taiwan Filed under: Uncategorized — strangemaps [...]
Pingback by ROC 國土 « 學習 Web 2.0 — February 24, 2008 @ 5:42 am
Whenever I feel the US is getting too imperialist, I remember my trip to PRC-controlled Tibet in 1985, and the wholesale and encouraged settlement of Hans overrunning Tibet. So I recall no one can conduct and rationalize hegemony better than the Han Chinese governing the PRC, or, it seems, the ROC.
This map is a hoot-and-a-half, except they’re so damn serious about it.
And, yes, I’m painfully aware of what the US did to Mexico in the 1840s, to the Indians from 1607 to the present, and to Hawaii and Cuba and the Philippines. Han governments go about it much more systematically and with no guilt whatsoever.
Comment by Tom R — March 4, 2008 @ 6:09 am
It is a matter of time before the PRC and its Red Empire collapses like all other imperialistic empires i.e. Roman, Great Britain, USSR. Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and East Rurkmenistan will be independent within 5-10 years. Guaranteed.
Comment by Ong — July 28, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Interesting and well-written post. I just discovered this “existential limbo” thing, as you put it, as a result of the Beijing Olympics. What a sad situation.
http://talkinghead.ca/
Comment by Saturn V — August 22, 2008 @ 12:51 am
What I find interesting (and not mentioned before) are the old provinces before the PRC re-organized them. For example, I was in the capital of Jilin Province, Changchun, which is not shown – instead, it shows a Kirin Province, with Kirin City as the capital. Now, the province is called Jilin, much expanded, and Changchun (the former capital of the Japanese territory of Manchucko) is the capital. Likewise, Liaoling province (whose capital is shown as Dalian, formerly Darien) was expanded and the capital moved to Shenyang.
Perhaps the ROC does not recognize any relinquishes of territorial claims or provincal changes undertaken by the PRC. Perhaps they don’t know of entire cities since created, like Shenzhen, since. I’m especially curious as to the ROC’s recognition of the handovers of Hong Kong and Macau to the PRC.
Comment by Sean M. — January 5, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
Absurdity is rooted in ignorance and superficial observations.
The thought of human beings piloting a flying machine that lands on the moon was an absurd idea 100 years ago.
To make judgments on an outdated map drawn 100 years ago is no better.
Comment by Yoda — January 22, 2009 @ 9:09 pm
Even if the CCP falls, it’s questionable if areas like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang can breakaway. The makeup is very different from CEE or the former Soviet bloc. Partly it’s history and political culture, but most of all it’s the population mix. Mao’s policy to migrate Hans into these areas have changed the ethnic make up. It is difficult for these areas become independent if majority of the population are already Hans.
Comment by Big Ben — February 6, 2009 @ 8:20 am
@sean: Hong Kong and Macau can be recognized by the ROC without difficulty. Hong Kong’s New Territories were on an explicit 99-year lease to Britain, and Hong Kong Island itself is not economically viable without the New Territories. Similarly, Portugal had been trying to return Macau to China since 1974. Both would have been returned to China in their entirety, if the ROC had remained in control.
It’s not like a border adjustment, where the PRC has given up some land to the other country. (There are also cases where the ROC claims less land than the PRC — the Chinese-Vietnamese border has been adjusted a hundred meters here-and-there in China’s favor, as a result of the Sino-Vietnamese War.)
Shenzhen already existed as a fishing village, so it would presumably exist in ROC atlases as a village.
Legal fictions are fun, but you don’t actually have to recognize changes to acknowledge them. For example, Taiwan is always included in Chinese censuses and statistical abstracts. These figures are simply copied from censuses conducted by the ROC, and accepted by the PRC as valid statistics supplied by a Chinese province.
Comment by Tom — April 30, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:15 am
i am just looking for a map of china can someone help. were can i get ont at in is for school
Comment by celina — May 12, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 6:24 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:57 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:22 am