Why call china the mainland?

Question

the new issue of business week has an article about jobs coming back to america because oil is killing off the china price. 3 times they mentioned china as THE MAINLAND. Why? Here is direct quote "pricey oil is dampening the mainlands edge ..." I could see if they were comapring the large country to Taiwan but they are comparing china to america, so why mainland?

Answer 1

It distinguishes Communist China from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

Answer 2

There is mainland China (which is communist China) and Chinese Taipei which is where the Democratic Chinese fled when the Communists took over in 1949. The term mainland China is used to distinguish between the two.

Answer 3

That term comes from when Hong  Kong was under British governance.  English was 'leasing' Hong Kong from Main land China.  Hong Kong generated a lot of revenue at that time, so the Chinese government didn't see a need to take it back by force.

Taiwan had been recognized as such for a long time.

Answer 4

There is mainland China and there is Taiwan.  I think that's what you're referring to.

Answer 5

Mainland China refers to the Peoples' Republic of China as opposed to Taiwan, R.O.C. or Republic of China.  Taiwan is an island off the coast of the mainland and it has its' own government and currency and ideals.

Answer 6

Good answers, everyone! You beat me to it. Probably the only thing the Taiwanese share w/mainland China (some of it) is speaking Mandarin.

As for the word, "mainland", it's similar to how Alaskans call us "The lower 48" or Hawaiians may say "the Mainland" when referring to the other United States. It's not an uncommon term. Most island cultures have some version of this.