1. I have done a thread on Why #Taiwan can not be a member of the World Health Organization ( @WHO) or participate in the World Health Assembly ( #WHA). Here are some basic facts on the Taiwan question and the reunification of China.

2. Taiwan has been a part of China's territory since time immemoral. The Island is closely linked to the Chinese mainland, especially the Province of #Fujian across the Strait. Formerly part of Fujian, Taiwan became a province in 1885 during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

3. China defended Taiwan against Spanish, Dutch invasion. The Qing Dynasty lost the first China-Japan war of 1894-1895. Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result. Qing Dynasty replaced by the Republic of China in 1911, the official name of China until 1949.

4. When the Chinese government declared war against the Japanese invasion in 1937, it annulled all treaties with Japan and vowed to recover all territories taken. China's demands were supported by its allies, #USA, #UK

5. In 1945, China won the War of Resistance against Japanese invasion and Taiwan was returned to China after 50 years under Japanese colonial rule, reunited with the other parts of China.

6. The former partners fighting the Japanese invasion, i.e. the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the Kuomingtang (KMT) government fell apart and the Civil War (War of Liberation) broke out. The military forces of the former were much weaker than the latter, supported by .

7. The CPC and its forces won the liberation war with the support of the Chinese people and other political parties in China. The central government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was set up on 1st Oct, 1949.

8. Some KMT govt & military fled to Taiwan province. With the support of , they set up a separate regime in Taiwan. The Taiwanese administration changed hands several times btw the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party [sic] but remains a regional regime.

9. The Taiwan question is a question left over by the civil war in China, is a question of safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it is purely China's internal affair.

10. It is the question of the relationships bwt the PRC Government -- the sole legitimate government representing the entire Chinese people with the capital in Beijing - and the Taiwan authorities, and it should be resolved by the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

11. The Taiwan question is a most central and sensitive issue between China and the USA. The two countries signed three joint communiques on establishing diplomatic relations and tackling the Taiwan question.

12. When the United Nations was founded in 1945, China was made a permanent member of the UN Security Council both the then Chinese government and CPC representative put their names onto the UN charter.

13. In October 1971, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted at its 26th session Resolution 2758, recognizing PRC as the sole legitimate government representing the whole of #China.

14. Therefore, the government of PRC represents China and the one China principle is widely acknowledged in the world. When and established full diplomatic relations in 1972, it acknowledges the position of China that Taiwan is a province of PRC.

15. #DengXiaoping proposed “One Country, Two Systems” to solve the Taiwan question and achieve national reunification. Both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to China. Taiwanese are Chinese. Chinese don’t fight Chinese

16. We strive for peaceful reunification but do not undertake to renounce the use of force in case Taiwan goes independent and foreign forces invade or occupy Taiwan.

17. Chines government opposes “Taiwan independence”, “two-Chinas” or “One China, one Taiwan”. We are opposed to countries having diplomatic relations with China to have official links with the Taiwan administration. Keeping non-official links not a problem.

18. One China principle is the key to maintaining stable and healthy cross-Strain relations and is the political foundation of China’s bilateral relationships with other countries and agencies.

cross-Strait instead of strain. apologies.