this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
274 points (95.7% liked)

World News

39127 readers
3034 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Heresy_generator@kbin.social 185 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

The news media needs to stop using the word "reunify" to refer to the PRC's threatened imperial conquest of an island they've never controlled.

[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep, this word is used intentionally by Xi and he knows he means "conquer the nation developed by the people that escaped his predecessors".

[–] brambledog@lemmy.today 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The nation wasn't developed by the people who escaped. That's an ahistorical way of framing the issue

Taiwan was developed by the overthrown proto-fascist military junta who just lost the civil war. After taking the island, they didn't tell the people of Taiwan that the war had been over and they were no longer China until 1991. The first labor laws outlawing slavery were introduced to the people of Taiwan in 2006. The people of Taiwan still consider themselves China (it is afterall the name they go by, not Taiwan) and full Taiwanese independence is still a minority held belief on the actual island.

Just to be clear, I am a supporter of their independence, but this is a very messy situation in which the political party who comrade the country is the same fascist party who lost the war in the first place and still maintains to the UN that they are the legitimate government of the mainland. Full separation is convenient for the West, but neither side actually wants that, they just don't want to be ruled by either fascists or communists, and I think that is incredibly fair for all people actually involved to want.

[–] Staccato@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

full Taiwanese independence is still a minority held belief on the actual island

Excuse me wut

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

of an island they've never controlled.

Oh boy this might get me downvoted. Saying the Communist Party never controlled it is a tautology. That's what happens when there's a civil war that turns into a stalemate: one side does not control the land of the other side. So of course the Communist side never controlled it. This is ducking the nuance of what the actual situation is, that there was a civil war that never ended.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Even before that Taiwan did not belong to the rest of China.

There were some settlers from the main land, but the indigenous population always controlled most of the island and the Chinese settlers were careful not to antagonize them.

This lasted for hundreds of years, pretty much until a brief period at the end of the 19th century when the Chinese government decided to send troops to brutally subjugate the indigenous population, only to shortly after lose control of Taiwan to the Japanese.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

It's a historical fact but how is it a tautology? Territory can change hands during a civil war as evidenced by the RoC no longer controlling China. Unless I'm misunderstanding something. Either way I don't think that changes the point, if that's a tautology then claiming that it can be reunified is a contradiction.