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China’s Xi Jinping says ‘no force’ can stop ‘reunion’ with Taiwan (globalnews.ca)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
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Amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a former Taiwanese president who supports unification that the countries “belong” together.

“Differences in systems cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same country and nation,” Xi said.

“External interference cannot stop the historical trend of reunion of the country and family,” Xi said, in comments reported by Taiwanese media and published by Reuters.

…

Beijing claims the independent island of Taiwan is a Chinese province and has threatened to use force to achieve unification. China frequently sends warplanes and naval vessels to circle the small island democracy and has been mounting an increasing number of military drills over recent years.

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[-] Sylver@lemmy.world 87 points 6 months ago

Why does Xi think he gets any say? He’s showing his full hand already, and it’s actually pathetic. Already saying that it will have to be taken by force. So he’s admitting that the people of Taiwan, if given a choice, may not choose to join China. Let’s give everyone a vote guaranteed by international overwatch, none of those mainland representatives.

This is just another dictator having a whiny shitstorm threatening to take territory by force just because they want their historical empire.

[-] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 61 points 6 months ago

Because the winds are blowing in his favour. Xi (and the rest of the world) have watched Russia take land with little repercussion. The reaction to the invasion of Crimea was mild and allowed for the full on invasion years later. The rules have changed and now leaders are seeing that taking land, which used to be seen as a relic of the past, is back on the menu.

The US and a lot of the west is afraid to get involved and do what needs to be done to stop Putin, and Xi knows that if he waits for the perfect moment Taiwan will be his.

The US is building domestic chip manufacturing in case they lose TSMC, and once it's operational one of the main reasons they consider Taiwan an asset will be gone. Xi likely is hoping the war in Ukraine and Israel will continue and "news fatigue" will render people uninterested in a new conflict. I'm not sure what the final nail will be that makes him move, but a controllable president like Trump getting in is a good bet.

[-] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago

I think there are two differences between Taiwan and Ukraine: Putin is fucking insane and might actually use nukes if attacked directly by a NATO nation, but I don't think Xi would do that (I could be wrong on both assessments). And Ukraine doesn't really have anything the world wants, while Taiwan (like you correctly pointed out) is about the only place that makes high performance computer chips and nobody wants China to have a world-wide stranglehold on that product.

[-] mdk_@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I think, before any chip maker in Taiwan is taken by chinese forces, their factories and laboritories might explode for some reason or another. I don't think that China can take them without catastrophic loss of very expensive and sensitive equipment that requires very specialised workers they don't have. All of these things can't be replaced in a reasonable time frame, especially at war.

If China follows through with an invasion, they might be after something else.

[-] mohammed_alibi@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

That something else is: Taiwan is an important geographic location. A separate Taiwan prevents China from having full easy access to the Pacific Ocean. If China holds Taiwan, China will be able to project its naval powers much further into the Pacific and the US does not like it.

This has always been the case since the KMT fled to Taiwan, way before Taiwan became a high-tech chip producing country. Way before Taiwan democratized. (Remember, Chiang Kai-Shek himself was a authoritarian asshole that has killed many earlier migrants to Taiwan.)

It's nice to have TSMC producing high-tech chips, but Samsung and Intel can also do so, perhaps only a process node (or half) behind TSMC, but Intel CPUs are no slouch compared to AMD's despite being a node behind. And Samsung have been producing some of nVidia's GPUs so they're not out of the game. But TSMC does need to be recognized and I don't really think it can be reproduced in the US. Taiwan has a very highly educated and underpaid engineering work force. I really don't think you can reproduce the same results in the US at the same costs. Its going to cost 5-10X more to move to the US.

[-] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

Ukraine is a huge exporter of grain. Breadbasket to much of the world. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/ukraine-s-food-exports-by-the-numbers/.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

but not to european and US, and that's what matter

[-] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

I think Putin is out of touch and lives with a completely different world view than you or I, but I don't think he is insane or suicidal. Look at how far away he stayed from people during COVID.

I think we do ourselves a disservice by bowing down to his sabre rattling every time he reminds us he has nukes. We know, and he also knows the second one will drop on his head if he tries it. It's just posturing to get people likrnus arguing and making his land grab seem more legitimate, like there's nothing we can really do.

He will always have nukes, and if we alwuas back down because not them he will always get his way.

[-] Iampossiblyatwork@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

The US is providing funding for companies like TSMC and Intel to buld fabs in the US. The reality is that TSMC is having a very hard time hiring and deal with cultural gaps between Asian working mindset vs. American working mindset. There's going to be some serious pain getting these fabs up and running.

[-] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 months ago

He’s not saying it will have to be taken by force. Where did you read that? He’s implying that China is willing to use force but he’s not asserting that the use of force is necessary if that makes sense.

If you want to understand the situation you have to understand that Taiwanese only remained politically independent thanks to US intervention in the Chinese civil war. When the nationalists fled to Taiwan the US stationed a fleet between the island and the mainland. That prevented the communists from finishing the fight against Chiang Kai-shek’s fascist KMT. The US then supported the KMT as the legitimate government of China right up until Kissinger realized the US could ally with the CPC against the USSR.

Given their long victimhood at the hands of colonialist and imperialist nations, the CPC is worried about what allowing Taiwanese independence would mean for their national security. They see foreign support for Taiwanese independence as the continued meddling of outside powers in Chinese affairs. That said I imagine they would be more amicable with maintaining Taiwanese political independence under the umbrella of an economic union if the US agreed to stop funding pro independence groups in Taiwan.

[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 months ago

None of the people in this thread want historical context or material analysis. They've been propagandized to think of China as an evil empire while they live in one 1000x worse. I can't wait to watch this trend continue (/s)

[-] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Honestly I think people just get defensive when their worldview is challenged. It sucks but it is what it is.

[-] resetbypeer@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago

He doesn't care about Taiwan as being part of China. He cares about those lovely tech companies with TMSC as the crown jewel. China wants to be the new world order and need chips to get that done. Taiwan being reunited with the mainland is only to fuel the nationalists to beg Xi to do it.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 12 points 6 months ago

Never underestimate the attraction of national pride to a nationalist. Taiwan would stick in his craw even if it wasn't home to some of the most important industries in the modern world.

[-] hungryphrog 21 points 6 months ago

I love how he says "reunion" as if it's a 20 year old who grew up an orphan meeting their real parents for the first time after they were kidnapped at 2 y/o.

[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 months ago

What an incredibly specific metaphor.

[-] solomon42069@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

He's technically correct - the Taiwanese government are the legitimate government of China living in exile from the Communist Party's violent take over.

[-] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 23 points 6 months ago

This is a wild take. The Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT did not have any more legitimacy than the CPC. He was a straight up fascist and after fleeing to Taiwan he politically repressed native Taiwanese people by having them massacred. You can oppose Xi and the CPC without having to pretend the KMT was at all legitimate.

[-] Pringles@lemm.ee 6 points 6 months ago

I almost want to see him try, because invading Taiwan is more likely to ruin the communist party than the Taiwanese government.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago

you're getting downvoted for saying the true lol

[-] Blackout@kbin.run 4 points 6 months ago

xi obviously havent watched star wars, that force took down a massive empire.

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 4 points 6 months ago

Oh look what happened by letting Poots do his thing can't wait for the 4 world zones to be complete

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Back to Säbelrasseln?

[-] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

This is their official policy. And if Taiwan wanted to unify, I don't think any force COULD stop the reunion. He's not talking about whether or not an invasion would work.

this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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