Why can countries officially recognise both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea as different political entities despite them both claiming to be the true Korea, but not the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China, instead having to choose a side?

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    21 days ago

    Two reasons:

    First, both Koreas accept that there are two different countries through various political actions. That equivalent doesn’t exist for the Chinas; both nations officially don’t recognize each other’s legitimacy and don’t treat each other as independent nations.

    Second, the UN Veto only goes to one country. The USA kept the PRC from being declared the legitimate Chinese government. So, the world is used to viewing the issue of one China, it continues to do so.

  • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    The PRC has the political weight to make others pick a side, at least openly.

    The DPRK, on the other hand, absolutely does not.

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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    22 days ago

    My understanding is that “China” is special because they’re a founding member of the UN and have special powers due to that. After the civil war, neither Taiwan or China wanted to lose that power, so neither side wanted to be recognized as anything other than “China”. I’ve heard that the younger generation in Taiwan are more open to being recognized as Taiwan but China has kind of made that impossible now by threatening any country that doesn’t respect the “one China” policy.

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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    22 days ago

    Taiwan doesn’t have nukes. Plus Korra was itself partitioned by the west. So there’s that.