National flag of Taiwan (ROC) appeared briefly at Piccadilly Circus, it was soon replaced with "Chinese Taipei" Olympic flag ahead of the Olympics. This is part of the cross-Strait and political status of Taiwan issues.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a democratic sovereign state—not just a "self-ruled island"—in East Asia. Because of its complex political background constrained with imposed claims by China (PRC) under "One China" principle, Taiwan (ROC) has been repressed and limited internationally and is officially recognised by only a small number of states. However, Taiwan maintains unofficial relations with most other countries and is de facto recognised by most sovereign states.
The term "Taiwan, Province of China" propagandised by China (PRC) and adopted by the UN and the ISO is both diminishing and incorrect, it is considered offensive by Taiwan. Contrary to PRC’s claims, Taiwan has never been part of its territory. Separately, there has been Taiwan independence movement advocating a distinct Taiwanese polity to replace current ROC’s framework based on Chinese nationalism, therefore to achieve de jure independence from the ambiguous ROC. China (PRC) is strongly hostile to such move and repeats military threat as a means to enforce its annexation or so-called "reunification" goal.
