Taiwan

i lived in taiwan for two years, so it's one of my favorite subjects.  any book you read on how to be polite or how to do business in china will tell you to avoid talking about taiwan.  never, never, never.  i'll echo that opinion with business, but if you'd really like an insight to the way chinese people think, start talking about sensitive issues like taiwan.  every time i've mentioned taiwan (to close friends, teachers, strangers), i immediately get the party line:  taiwan is part of china and has always been.  and if you ask for proof that taiwan and china are inseparably linked as a nation, they say chinese.  the chinese language is the reason taiwan is china.  history lesson:  taiwan has long been the trophy handed to the latest victor of the spoils.  the chinese, the dutch, and the japanese have all laid claim on the island in the past two hundred years alone.  the original inhabitants of the island, having arrived several thousands of years ago, were of malay and polynesian ancestry.  the han chinese didn't actually begin to populate the island until about 1200 AD.  the portuguese saw the island in the sixteenth century and began to call it formosa, or the island beautiful, but it wasn't until the dutch began to colonize the island in 1624 that there was a significant european presence.  not too long after this, the fujian military and navy kicked the dutch out and the island came under the rule of the qing dynasty, eventually becoming its own province with taibei as its capitol.  at the end of the nineteenth century, the japanese successfully invaded and quelled resistance.  japan controlled the island until the end of the war in 1945.  the kuomintang that controlled china at the time then controlled taiwan until 1949 when the communist party finally vanquished the KMT and the nationalist leaders lead by jiang jie shi (or chiang kai-shek, as he's know to ignorant westerners) fled to taiwan to "regroup", as he called it.  they never left, and taiwan has effectively had its own economy, military, trade, treaties, legislature, law, political parties, language, and traditions since.  as far as i can reason it, taiwan hadn't been china's since 1895, and (because we know that jiang jie shi was preparing for a retreat to taiwan for many years before the actual event in 1949) the 1945 to 1949 legitimate rule by the KMT only prepared the island for yet another invasion (this time by the nationalist military).  china calls taiwan a province, and the chinese people insist (very heartily) that taiwan is part of china and eventually china will "jiekai" or free and release taiwan from its present situation.  the taiwanese that i know, on the other hand, seem satisfied with the status quo (afraid to provoke china to war with claims of independence, but having independence in practice) but do not consider themselves chinese.  many will actually correct you if you call them zhongguo ren.  interesting, no?