There is no flag in the encoding. Instead, there are codepoints for each of ISO 3166-1's "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1

Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China agree that there exists an entity called "Taiwan, Province of China" (TW). They have different views about what that entity's flag is (and many other things about that entity), but Unicode doesn't offer any opinions on that.

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maxglute 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

To clarify, 3166-1 is for countries, dependent territories (i.e. Guam), special areas (Taiwan, Hong Kong) i.e. TW gets a flag being in 3166-1 list but under UN resolution 2758, PRC gets to subsume TW as special area - "Taiwan (Province of China)". 3166-2 is for subdivisions (TW provinces, UNDER CHINA), i.e. all TW provinces are considered subdivisions of China/PRC. Same with HK. Unicode doesn't offer opinion in the sense the opinion is whatever UN recognize as countries, which will never include TW as long as PRC holds P5 veto.

In the meantime this arrangement works out since ROC constitution still legally asserts it's but part of One China polity, i.e. it doesn't matter what TWers think or DPP claims, or tries to legally engineer (additional articles /legal fiction limiting ROC political jurisdiction to "free area" of tw + islands). Until TW voters&politicians actually formally separates / declares independence, as in change ROC constitution by renounce claims on mainland, they'll lose 3166-1 designation because PRC gets to remove them, and won't get a new one because PRC veto. They'll lose their emojis (maybe iso codes, maybe domain depending on US/ICANN drama)... which TBH will be least of their worries.

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throwaway290 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Almost nobody in Taiwan would call it a "province of China" (some would if you redefine what China means, ie not PRC). But as usual standards bodies bend to whoever has power at the moment.

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decimalenough 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Legally speaking, Taiwan is a province of China according to both the PRC and ROC. Of course, they both claim that they are the "China" in question.

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adastra22 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

This is a clear tell that your knowledge of the situation is basically just Wikipedia plus media reporting. Approximately nobody in Taiwan views it that way. It is an obscure legal fiction of no relevance. It only persists because of a red line drawn by the PRC.

It’s kind of like how New Zealand is included as a province of Australia, technically, in their constitution.

	▲	decimalenough 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I didn't saw anything about how people view this? As you state, it's a legal fiction, but it's quite useful in numerous contexts like this, because it lets Unicode de facto include the Taiwan flag without actually including the Taiwan flag.
	▲	2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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lern_too_spel 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

While a previous government of Taiwan claimed that it was the legitimate ruler of China, the current government does not. It considers itself to be a separate sovereign state. The KMT that fought for control of China and fled the mainland is only a small fraction of Taiwan's population and only ruled over the majority by political suppression.

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throwaway290 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Not very wrong but maybe at least half of population will not agree with that

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cluckindan 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Taiwan is the last vestige of original ”China” and PRC already redefined it when Taiwan (ROC) lost the mainland to the communists in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War.