Being in the “Occupied Area”

Many mainland China citizens joke that they are living in the “Occupied Area”, they even require Ma Ying-jeou, president of Taiwan, to recover mainland China. Maybe in face of the relatively cruel realities of living in the mainland, no mainland people really regard himself as a citizen of the Republic of China (with its government in Taipei), but some of them use the national flag of ROC as their avatar in social networks, one of my friends does so in QQ, an popular online chat tool. Fortunately, this is no illegal in Mainland China.

Such saying of being in the “Occupied Area” of China is not groundless, as the Republic of China officially claims mainland China and Mongolia and other border areas as parts of its territory.

Official Map of the Republic of China

And since the Taiwanese enjoy better living standard, environment, freedom and democracy compared to people in mainland China, it is common that many of us imagine that we are also citizens of the ROC, instead of the People's Republic of China.