China... or Taiwan?

The question about the founding date is highly misleading. The Republic of China was indeed founded in 1912 and the country we generally think of as Taiwan indeed offically claims to be the Republic of China (according to its constitution, the whole of the pre-war Chinese republic, most of which is today's PRC, still belongs to it, with the assumption that the continental part will return unter the democratic republic's sovereignty as soon as the Maoist rebels are defeated). But in practical terms, the political and social entity we know as Taiwan came to being after the second world war. Conversely, one may be excused for thinking that what we call China was actually founded in 1912, since the PRC claims to be the legal successor of the pre-war Republic of China and shares the vast majority of its area. I would guess that in both cases, the clash between theory and practice is too prominent and the best solution would be to leave this question out.