Ray (Eclecticology) wrote:
"The official name for any country is the long form..."
Sorry, but I stopped reading at that point.
I think what he meant (or should have said) is the following, which is subtly yet crucially different:
The official name for any *government* is the long form.
China, whether it's "really" one country or not, currently has two sovereign political divisions: PRC and ROC. If one division claims jurisdiction over the other, we should mention that in the article. But we should absolutely not respect one side's claims over the other. We must remain neutral, even if "everyone knows" that the only legitimate government of all of China is X.
Ed Poor