The Republic of China is an entirely separate country from the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong, likewise, is economically and administratively separate from the rest of China.

TIL Taiwan is actually called the Republic of China! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China

You are correct that Taiwan is a separate country. Hong Kong 100% belongs to China and so any decision that comes from Hong Kong actually comes from Beijing.

Nevertheless, it is economically and administratively distinct. Debt controlled by Hong Kong is controlled by a substantially different set of people than debt controlled by China proper.

That all depends where you are sitting. The Chinese certainly don't consider them a separate country.

But realistically speaking, Taiwan has it's own government, China has no say, and other governments of the world interact with Taiwan as a peer.

Although the US does not officially recognize them as a separate country.

... for political reasons only. Taiwan self-governs, and is economically distinct from China, which is what matters here.

Unless we are talking about China using the debt for hostile purposes, in which case the independence of RoC and what it may be willing to do to stay independent, might be exactly what matters. Ditto HK. I assume everyone involved has plans to move their money if PRC attempts nationalization, but if its delivers instructions to "keep your money, just dont roll it over" or "dont roll it over and we'll cover any loses as the dollar ceases to exist" then some people will have some hard choices to make.

I suppose there's also a question of what (if anything) the US would do to help Taiwan stay independent if China decided to re-unify via force. Definitely a potentially sticky situation.

the problem is that Mainland China is demanding other countries not to see Taiwan as a independent nation.

Taiwan makes the same claim on China. No one takes them seriously either (not since the Nixon administration anyway.)

It's the same with the Koreas.

I think you guys are over-arguing this.

Governmental logistics aside, imagine the US sent a billion dollars in aid to a nation. Now imagine California also did the same. Did the US (the federal government) send two billion? No. They are clearly two different entities in this exchange, without trying to explain the nuance.

That said, the reason why they're separate is very important politically, but that can be best described with a link to simple.Wikipedia or something.