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Some Countries Exist Only on Paper

CGP Grey · 12.4M views · 2013-10-23 · 5:26

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Overview

A short CGP Grey explainer about how countries are defined, why recognition by others matters, and the oddities of places like Taiwan and Vatican City. It shows that statehood is partly a matter of diplomacy rather than fact.

On Hacker News

Cited in threads on borders, Taiwan's status and how many countries exist, as a quick explanation of why recognition is political.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2016–2020

Topics

Geopolitics & foreign policyWorld history
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statehoodtaiwandiplomacybordersgeopolitics

What people said

dwheeler · 2018-07 · Recommendation

Officially, many countries and businesses agree that Taiwan isn't a country, while continuing in practice to do everything that only makes sense if Taiwan is in fact a country. This is an old game that fools no one. I wouldn't fuss about the name, we all know what's really going on, and the name game probably saves millions of lives. You might find this video clip interesting: [VIDEO]

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judge2020 · 2020-10 · Reference

There are 193 countries (footnote[0]), so that might mean 193 app stores, but then some countries might delegate the power to require their own app store to their own regions/"states". 0: [VIDEO]

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dwheeler · 2020-05 · Reference

It says it only applies to the People's Republic of China, and in the notes above it's only because of the laws of the People's Republic of China. In all practical senses Taiwan is a separate country, but there are reasons not to admit it: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by CGP Grey, played through YouTube.

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