China's Special Relationship with Taiwan. The "One China Policy" from a Geopolitical View (PDF)

Document from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: South Asia, grade: 2, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, course: Geopolitics and international relations, language: English, abstract: In recent times, media focuses on China regarding the controversy about the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. This is a political, ethnical and medial controversy between Japan and China.

Not far away from the Senkaku Islands is the island Taiwan. China claims Taiwan, yet the status of the island is, until today, unresolved. The military buildup in the last few years in China is very effective and now Taiwan fears a Chinese occupation in the future. The conflict between China and Taiwan is a topic since the end of the civil war and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. It is also present one and will continue to be one in the future.

This essay discusses the "One-China Policy" (the policy that there is only one China, undivided into the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China) and describes and analyses the political status of the island Taiwan, with a focus on the history of the relations between China and Taiwan.

Several questions have to be answered: Why does Taiwan have its separate status? Why has China claimed it? In how far are the two countries depending on one another? What will happen in the future? Will there be one China? Two Chinas? Or one China, one Taiwan?