this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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[–] Heresy_generator@kbin.social 187 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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 29 points 10 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 6 points 10 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 10 months ago

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

Excuse me wut

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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 10 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.