You may have heard an overly simplified version, but no. Taiwan does not think that. “Taiwan thinks” is tricky in the first place because there are many different constituencies within Taiwan with many different histories and different attitudes concerning national identity. But only a vanishingly small minority considers their nationality to be “Chinese” only.
The original plan when the nationalist government retreated from Nanjing to Taipei in 1949 was regroup and re-take the mainland, but it never happened. And the dictator who wanted to do that died 50 years ago and even his KMT government since then has reformed and now there is democracy and a pluralistic society.
But the important thing to understand is that retaking the mainland was never realistic, and never had the backing of the Taiwanese people. When the Republic of China was formed in 1912, Taiwan didn’t even have anything to do with it. Taiwan was a Japanese colony until the end of WWII. So when Taiwan was ceded to the Republic of China in 1945, most of the Taiwanese people were either aboriginal or people whose families had migrated from China during the Qing Dynasty or before. These were not people who considered themselves Chinese. If anything, many were getting used to the idea of being Japanese.
The way the nationalists governed, they didn’t seem to think much of the Taiwanese people either. They basically set about looting and pillaging and stripping their new territory for all the riches they could grab, and when the Taiwanese people protested, they were massacred by the thousands during what is called the 228 Incident, and that led to a 38 year period of martial law and brutal authoritarian repression called the White Terror. So by 1949, when the Nationalists were kicked out of China, they hadn’t made too many friends in Taiwan. But they did bring along 2 million refugees and the army. So they were in charge. Gradually, martial law was lifted and democracy introduced. The first presidential election wasn’t held until 1996.
During the 50, 60, and 70s, yes, Taiwan’s government did claim to be the rightful government in exile of all of china. But the writing was definitely on the wall once the ROC lost their UN seat to Beijing and most countries switched their diplomatic relationships. Once Chiang Kai-Shek died in 1975, Taiwan’s focus turned to reshaping internal politics.
There was a very strong “Taiwan Independence” movement in the 1970s, but this did NOT refer to independence from China. There was no need to declare independence from the PRC, because Taiwan had never been under their control in the first place. Taiwan independence was about kicking the KMT out of power and setting up self rule. With liberalization of the ROC, that movement has mostly grown into the DPP, a rival political party to the KMT political party, which the KMT nation-state has become. But, China has nonetheless made it clear that updating the official constitution to reflect this new reality would invite a military response, so Taiwan is still “Republic of China” on paper. But don’t read too much into that.
You won’t find any serious person in 2026 who thinks the ROC government is going to be in charge of China, even in the KMT. The KMT has morphed from the bitter enemies of the CCP into a pro-China party and they do advocate integrating with Beijing, but even they have no illusions that they will be in charge. They do have illusions that China will let them continue to manage their own affairs under “one country, two systems,” but they should ask Hong Kong how that’s going.
Edit: how to do paragraphs on piefed, damn…
yeah sorry if I info-dumped. I been on a bit of a Taiwan history kick lately. 😊