[tallhappy]

I guess it all depends on how you define the word "China" or "Chinese".

How do you define it?

As far as the world is concerned, China means People's Republic of China.

Taiwan is not part of that.

China is a political term, not geographic.

[super175]

Taiwan has never been part of the PRC. Never has and probably never will.

You ask me how I define "China"? I define it in much larger and broader terms than just the PRC.

"China" has been around for 5,000 years. The PRC has been around for 50 years. You can do the math...

As far as it not being a geographic term, who knows...

Right now, the political definition of "China" is still up in the air. What about the ROC? Or the PRC? Couldn't there conceivably be a new way to define that word?

If you ask me to be specific in what I believe (other than what I said above), I cannot do it without a lot of thought.

[super175]

The original "China" or "Qin Dynasty" era China was only about 1/4 the size of today's "China".

"China" is an English term, not a Chinese one.

The "middle kingdom" refered to the kingdom of the monarch, however big or small that kingdom might have been...

[super175]

To the Chinese, any place (or people) that have ever been conquered to be under the rule of Chinese monarchs, or part of their kingdom(s), were part of "zhong guo" or 'part of the emperor's kingdom', whichever "zhong guo" they were talking about.

Translate that the English and what do you get?

Geographically "China" has changed sizes more times than I can count. There have historically been many "China's".