hunterw wrote:ok new argument
the US virgin islands = USA?
The USVI are part of the United States.
It's a bit different since USVI, Puerto Rico, Guam, etc. are essentially colonial holdings of the United States. Taiwan would be an integral part of China if it were not under a different government for purely political reasons.
In a sense we're both right. The argument can be had at several different levels.
On the political level, Taiwan is not China, where Taiwan = ROC and China = PROC, unless you happen to be the government of the Peoples' Republic, in which case Taiwan is part of China.
On the human-geographical level, Taiwan is part of China, despite the fact that they are under two different governments.
Trying to use the wording "Taiwan is China" or "US Virgin Islands is United States" is very misleading, since we're trying to determine is the former could be said to be in the set of the latter. In addition, nobody ever argued that Taiwan is China.