Over the course of its history, the island of Taiwan has gone through multiple eras.
First it was an independent island with native peoples who had their own languages.
Then they were colonized by the Chinese and became part of China.
Then they were occupied by the Japanese.
Then the island became a safe haven for the losers of China’s civil war. Those losers are the foundation of Taiwan’s modern politics. Until about 30 years ago they claimed they were the actual rulers of China. Now they claim they’re a unique and independent nation.
Most importantly they were a military base of a foreign power (the United States) up until 1979. Now the US media is talking about supplying nuclear weapons to the Taiwanese separatist government. The USA is also engaging in trade war with China. The US and Saudi Arabia helped recruit, arm and train terrorists from China to fight in proxy wars in the Middle East. These terrorists have threatened to return to China to stage a revolt against the government.
It’s unsurprising that China wants Taiwan to become reunified with the mainland. Since day one they’ve been a security threat. Like Hong Kong, the only future for Taiwan is reunification. If the separatist government decides to reignite the civil war, there might not be an island of Taiwan in the future. They can lose gracefully or they can detonate the vest and destroy themselves and their relatives on the mainland. The people who lose will be the Chinese people and their trading partners around the world who benefit from their stability.
My main point is that none of this is happening in a vacuum. No matter how much we as foreigners are told that we’re ambassadors of freedom by propping up a lost cause government and helping to drive a wedge to split their country, all the rest of the world sees is how craven we are.
When the US had its civil war, the North and South reunified. This is how civil wars end. Taiwan is not exempt from the rules of history.
Notice how you didn’t even consider the possiblity of just china and Taiwan being separate countries. Which is how many civil wars end (the US civil war is not the only civil war). It is also the ending that causes less harm overall. The taiwanese don’t die, and the Chinese don’t “give in to separatists”, because they are not separatists. You can’t separate from a state you never belonged to. The taiwanese were never part of communist china.
To pretend the Taiwanese are not separatists is historically incorrect. As noted above, they only pivoted to calling themselves independent decades after the civil war. Before their claimed independence they claimed to be the actual rulers of China (to them the civil war was still ongoing). Only in the fantasy land of the Taiwanese can you claim to be the rulers of a nation and then decide you’re no longer part of that nation.
Over the course of its history, the island of Taiwan has gone through multiple eras.
First it was an independent island with native peoples who had their own languages.
Then they were colonized by the Chinese and became part of China.
Then they were occupied by the Japanese.
Then the island became a safe haven for the losers of China’s civil war. Those losers are the foundation of Taiwan’s modern politics. Until about 30 years ago they claimed they were the actual rulers of China. Now they claim they’re a unique and independent nation.
Most importantly they were a military base of a foreign power (the United States) up until 1979. Now the US media is talking about supplying nuclear weapons to the Taiwanese separatist government. The USA is also engaging in trade war with China. The US and Saudi Arabia helped recruit, arm and train terrorists from China to fight in proxy wars in the Middle East. These terrorists have threatened to return to China to stage a revolt against the government.
It’s unsurprising that China wants Taiwan to become reunified with the mainland. Since day one they’ve been a security threat. Like Hong Kong, the only future for Taiwan is reunification. If the separatist government decides to reignite the civil war, there might not be an island of Taiwan in the future. They can lose gracefully or they can detonate the vest and destroy themselves and their relatives on the mainland. The people who lose will be the Chinese people and their trading partners around the world who benefit from their stability.
My main point is that none of this is happening in a vacuum. No matter how much we as foreigners are told that we’re ambassadors of freedom by propping up a lost cause government and helping to drive a wedge to split their country, all the rest of the world sees is how craven we are.
When the US had its civil war, the North and South reunified. This is how civil wars end. Taiwan is not exempt from the rules of history.
Notice how you didn’t even consider the possiblity of just china and Taiwan being separate countries. Which is how many civil wars end (the US civil war is not the only civil war). It is also the ending that causes less harm overall. The taiwanese don’t die, and the Chinese don’t “give in to separatists”, because they are not separatists. You can’t separate from a state you never belonged to. The taiwanese were never part of communist china.
To pretend the Taiwanese are not separatists is historically incorrect. As noted above, they only pivoted to calling themselves independent decades after the civil war. Before their claimed independence they claimed to be the actual rulers of China (to them the civil war was still ongoing). Only in the fantasy land of the Taiwanese can you claim to be the rulers of a nation and then decide you’re no longer part of that nation.