I have always been confused about the political situation of Taiwan and its diplomatic relationship with China. Also, some of my friends in France were saying "so you are in China" and asking "Is Taiwan a country?". But in both case I couldn't answer anything because I didn't knew anything about the taiwanese situation.
During my semester, I had multiple opportunities to make friends and to meet really nice taiwanese people. That's why I was oftently asking my new friends about there opinion.
One of them, Coco, told me that most of taiwanese have chinese ancestors. But she also said that "Even if I have chinese ancestor, now my life is in Taiwan and I'm a taiwanese".
China considers that Taiwan belongs to its territory when Taiwanese consider themselves as independants. Laws are completely different in Taiwan and people have more freedom. I had the opportunity to go in China before. That way, I can compare both cultures and say that they are really different. We can really see in the everyday life that Taiwanese are influenced by the Korean and the Japanese cultures (in the way people are dressed, the makeup of women, advertisement in the MRT...).
So to the question: "Is Taiwan a country?" I would answer that even if it isn't recognized as one by most countries, I consider it as one because of the many cultural differences. Taiwanese people are comptetely different from Chinese in the way they are acting and thinking. They are much more open minded and influenced by other cultures (Japanese, Korean, European...).