KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih said on Saturday that a vote for the DPP was equivalent to "sending everyone out to the battlefield" because supporting Taiwan independence would touch off a war.

What's happening in Taiwan? Why did a presidential candidate said something like this? In another country, a presidential candidate telling people to not supporting their own country's sovereignty would be a political suicide.

[–] ArthurParkerhouse@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Believe it or not, a lot of younger Taiwanese people want to rejoin the mainland. Not exactly a majority yet, but it's getting pretty close.

[–] ylph@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

What is your source for this ? Recent polls show reunification support is still <2%, with about 6% open to reunification eventually but not now.

In 2018, before the crackdown in HK, the reunification support was 3%, with 13% open to it eventually - the events in HK have definitely significantly eroded support for reunification in Taiwan.

I have family in Taiwan and literally don't know a single Taiwanese person that wants reunification with the PRC.

[–] concrete_baby@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

Source?

[–] SomeGuyNamedPaul@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Foreign influence operations exist because they work.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

That's a dogwater (approaching racist) argument and you know it.

[–] blindsight@beehaw.org 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not parent poster, but I didn't read that at all. International propaganda works, and has the potential to destroy democracy in America (and lots of other countries, too.)

What am I missing?

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

They're implying that the people who live there can't make a decision for themselves, in other words a white guy overseas with zero stake in the matters thinks they know more about the reality than the people who actually live there, which is a very disrespectful prospective.

The racism comes from the long history of white people doing this to peoples who choose for themselves in ways that they don't agree with. It's never that they chose for themselves but always that someone else (usually malicious) came in and made the decision for them.

[–] inverted_deflector@startrek.website 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wouldnt the foreign influencer in the context of this comment tree be china though?

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml -1 points 11 months ago

Yeah but there's no doubt in my mind they were running the "vassal state chooses to align with enemy state" script.

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