I used ‘nation’ in this sentence to mean ethnicity, NOT state(country).
Unlike Western Europe, which experienced post-nationalism after two world wars, nationalism is the dominant ideology in Asia. Even in China, where there are several ethnic minorities, there is a Han Chinese-centered social structure. Korea? Koreans proudly introduce the phrase, “We are a single-ethnic nation.”
And this ‘ethnic’ connection sometimes acts stronger than ‘citizenship’. Can you understand the scene where a banquet is held in a Pan clan village in China because the Korean who became the new UN Secretary-General is a distant relative, or the Korean who apologizes to Americans because a Korean-American committed a gun crime in the United States? You may not understand, but it is reality.
‘Policy’ should not be misled by their basic idea. Even unification supporters within the ROC demand democratization of the PRC as a prerequisite for unification. The same goes for opinion polls. Because they cannot trust the current Chinese government. But above this is the constitution of the ROC.
自由地區與大陸地區間人民權利義務關係及其他事務之處理,得以法律為特別之規定。
Because the ROC constitution is, at least nominally, the constitution of all China, the amendments avoided any specific reference to the Taiwan area and instead used the geographically neutral term “Free Area of the Republic of China” to refer to all areas under ROC control.
They do not believe that the PRC and the ROC are separate, unrelated ‘countries’. Just as the PRC denies the ROC government, the ROC’s constitution denies the PRC’s government.
And this relationship appears equally in both Koreas.
No, you are over-interpreting the definition.
A ‘civil war’ is a conflict between two forces within a community over the sole legitimacy of that community. Therefore, for the sake of their own existence, they cannot acknowledge the other. Just as the two Chinas claim to be the only legitimate government of China, and the two Koreas claim to be the only legitimate government of Korea. This is what an ethnic community is like, accumulated over hundreds to thousands of years. But equating civil wars with ordinary wars of aggression would derail the topic.
That is why the confrontation between two Chinas or the two Koreas has a clearly different outcome from the confrontation between Japan and other Asian countries.
China is China. Korea is Korea. But it can’t be Japan or anything else.
Whether you like it or not
The difference is that their relationship is not simply ‘hostile’. This is a common mistake made by the U.S. State Department.