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[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 32 points 1 year ago

What are they expecting to happen if they attack Taiwan? They'll start the next world war. There isn't a reality where the West is going to let them have it, regardless of how effective their "precision strikes" or suicidal their lunatics are.

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago

I mean, isn't this just the most schizophrenic framing. It's Chinese soldiers who are lunatics for being patriotic but Americans are sane for threatening world war over a Chinese island on the other side of the world.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 5 points 1 year ago

Suicide isn't patriotic. And it isn't a Chinese island; that's the point. It's a democratic, independent country that happens to be a US ally.

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Suicide isn’t patriotic

Tell that to literally all the European and American soldiers who say they want to die for their country, and all the bumper stickers, and all the memorials, and all of the ceremonies, and all of the rhetoric, and all of the families, and and and... Or do you not consider it suicide when Euro-centric soldiers choose to enlist and committing to fight to their death?

And it isn’t a Chinese island; that’s the point

It's literally populated by almost entirely Chinese people, Chinese people who genocided the native inhabitants. It is quite literally part of the same land mass and water ways just like Manhattan, Galveston, and the Florida Keys. In all ways except one, it is a Chinese island.

The one way that it is NOT a Chinese island is that when the losing fuedal-fascist White Army fled to the island, the imperial fascist British and Americans interceded to protect their imperial fascist interests by ensuring that the KMT was able to stay alive and that they would be further indebted to them. The KMT then proceeded to prosecute the ruthlessly brutal White Terror on the island while the North Atlantic imperial fascists maintained diplomatic and military relationships with the island as a way of holding on to their imperialist presence in China that they obtained through violence, occupation, and the forced selling of opium.

This is the ONLY definition of "Chinese" that Taiwan is not, specifically that it is not administered by the central government of the mainland. The former central governments all administered Taiwan prior to the civil war, but this particular central government was stopped by European interventionism to advance European interests.

You are grasping at straws in trying to construct a narrow moralistic narrative that smoothly eliminates all the parts of the narrative that would fly against your moral narrative. It's not working. Reality is what it is.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 5 points 1 year ago

I would say that suicide is not patriotic to anyone. Why do Chinese supporters always resort to whataboutism, anyway? Shitty behavior is shitty behavior, regardless.

The PRC has never owned Taiwan. Also, it doesn't matter about the ethnicity of the population because, at the end of the day, they don't want to be part of China.

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I would say that suicide is not patriotic to anyone.

But you have nothing to say to about America not allowing integration with China without launching a world war? Curious.

The PRC has never owned Taiwan

What a fucked up imperialist framing. The PRC doesn't own China, it is the current government of the sovereign nation of China which has included Taiwan for a very long time and still includes Taiwan. You don't say that the Democrats don't own Alabama, but you apply an idiosyncratic standard to argue that the US is justified in turning Taiwan into it's military proxy and threatening to send millions to their death over reintegration of a territory that is quite literally by all standards part of the same nation as the mainland.

Also, it doesn't matter about the ethnicity of the population because, at the end of the day, they don't want to be part of China.

You are talking about people who suffered under the White Terror for 40 years, which included torture and murder of anyone who disagrees with the KMT. The individual beliefs of the residents is a direct result not only of the indoctrination from that White Terror but from the heavy indoctrination by European propaganda for many many decades.

What matters is that there is no way from Taiwan to be independent. It will either be part of the imperial bloc and therefore a military threat to China and a base for Western imperial power projection and containment, or it will be administered as a province of China and the Europeans will be kicked out of their foot hold. This is why the conflict exists, not because the people in Taiwan care one way or the other, but because independent Taiwan is a strategic position for the European imperial order. China will integrate it because it is required for Chinese national security, which serves not merely the people of the mainland but also the people of the island. It would be tragic for the US to turn Taiwan into another meat grinder in its bid to use proxies to maintain its global oppression.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why are you mad at me? It isn't my choice. You make some good points/observations, but I won't respond to each of them because the fact of the matter is that the US will not sit by and watch Taiwan be "reintegrated" (again, not my choice; just a fact).

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago

It's also not the US's choice. The European empire, which the US inherited and evolved, is slowly but surely ending. The integration will happen, and the US won't launch a world war to stop it, because China won't launch a war to integrate, because China isn't the belligerent that the West has been trying to invent through propaganda for 2 centuries. Instead, China will continue to assert its position, demonstrate it's ability to protect Taiwan from further imperial manipulation, and wait until Taiwan is ready to experiment with "one country, two systems". China, unlike the West, can wait for a long time.

[-] chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net 2 points 1 year ago

Sometimes it is worthwhile to be mindful of users’ instances… dude you’re replying to is from one of those instances.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 1 points 1 year ago

Aaaahh, gotcha. Good advice, thanks. 👍

[-] NXTR@artemis.camp 2 points 1 year ago
[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 5 points 1 year ago

Officially. That's just political framing to keep China from going ape-shit. Unofficially, though... see the Six Assurances.

[-] NXTR@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago

This is true. The six assurances reaffirms that the United States doesn’t view Taiwan as a sovereign nation under either Taiwanese or Chinese rule. The main points it states is that the US will continue to supply Taiwan with weapons, it will not be involved with negotiations between the PRC and Taiwan, Taiwan is not a sovereign state and China is not recognized as having sovereignty over Taiwan.

So the US doesn’t think China has sovereignty over Taiwan while also saying they do not support Taiwan independence.

Basically it’s another way for the US to feed the military industrial complex while keeping the possibility of war in our back pocket without disrupting relations with our #1 trade partner.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 1 points 1 year ago

Yup, the military industrial complex is so screwed up.

Taiwan presents a tricky and strange situation. All I'm saying is that I really do not think that the US would sit back and watch China invade without doing anything.

[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Yea they would probably sacrifice the Philippines first. Then Japan.

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[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

And it isn't a Chinese island; that's the point. It's a democratic, independent country that happens to be a US ally. 😍

And it isn't a Ukrainian province; that's the point. It's a democratic, independent country that happens to be a Russian ally. 😡

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 5 points 1 year ago

What does this even mean? You're comparing cats and dogs in an attempt to justify PRC's warrantless claim to an island they've never owned in modern history.

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Countries don't OWN their land, they are sovereign over their territory. Quite literally no government of China EVER owned Taiwan, but all governments, including this one, have been sovereign over Taiwan. It's just that Taiwan was illegally occupied by separatists and European imperial powers. The sovereignty does not inhere to the party in charge any more than the Democratic party can own Alabama or the Republican party can own the Florida Keys.

[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

I think almost every independence movement is a bit like a Rorschach Test; people see in them what they want (or can).

In this discussion here you learn basically almost nothing about Taiwan, its history, or why and what its people want, but you sure learn a lot about the political worldviews of everyone who participated. Your comment here is an excellent example of that, even better than the one I replied to first.

And btw, I don't justify any claim. I'd rather support Taiwans de jure sovereignty (over the island, not over all of that 😅) if that's what its population want. And I doubt that this CCTV documentary is gonna change my mind, but still plan to watch it cuz I'm still trying to understand why most Chinese propaganda is so lame 😂

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 2 points 1 year ago

All propaganda is not good, but I'd say that Chinese-brand propaganda is fierce. I make an attempt to get news from sources outside the States because our propaganda is pretty lame as well. I should learn more about Taiwan history, though. Can anyone recommend a good book about it?

[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fierce or not, it just seems weird. The relations between prc and roc cannot be that bad, and think of all the trading! There are so many ways to improve relations while still aiming for an official reunification. But hey, you know what, great idea! Let's publish some video-statements of soldiers who say they will sacrifice their lives to get back the island that we officially already hold sovereignty over! – nono, much better idea! Let's make it an eight-part series, that will make us even more popular over there!

It's like in the meme where the one guy who says something reasonable gets thrown out of the office window. (have not watched it, maybe it's also much better than I assume)

Meanwhile American propaganda is obviously much better, for example, no one questioned what happened before the stuff that happens in the black hawk down movie, or what happened after the pearl harbor movie. Comparing cats and dogs, yes, but from a simple propaganda perspective, that is just good framing, something China is really bad at, constantly. 

And the US knows how to use that advantage. Americans (and most people in the West) care and know more about what probably happened to probably thousands of peaceful Chinese democracy-lovers (NSFL!), rather than why the US government bombed a whole city block in Philadelphia  2 years prior 🤷‍♂️

And yea, its always good to learn more! Have fun learning about the history of Taiwan, White Terror and all that. It became too much for me very quickly, so I cannot recommend anything.

[-] Dreyns@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Always funny to see people validating expensionism in the 21st century, really brings a colonialist bloodlust vibe.

Btw by funny I meant fucking depressing*

[-] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

LOL, "expansionism". Like what NATO does? Or do you mean the reintegration of formerly centrally administered provinces after imperialist interventionism that occupied, divided, and oppressed? Because lest you forget, all the people on Taiwan, except for the very small number of natives who survived the genocidal KMT, they're all part of China. They seceded and the Europeans protected them, not because they had a right to seceded, but because Europe wanted to maintain military and economic dominance over the region. Taiwan is a proxy in this case. Reintegrating the proxy is not expansionism.

Expansionism is 600 military bases around the world. Expansionism is establishing Ukraine as a new proxy and attempting to install net new nuclear capabilities on its border with Russia. Expansionism is literally what China has been fighting against for centuries. And now, because they want to continue pushing out European interests from their corner of the world, you're crying "expansionism"! It's ridiculous. Was it expansionism when Hong Kong was returned to China from the British? Was it expansionism when the British could no longer have complete immunity from Chinese law in Shanghai? Was it expansionism when the North Koreans tried to push out the Japanese from the peninsula?

Europe has been expanding for 600 years and you're going to cry foul when someone tries to push out European interests from where they never should have been in the first place?

[-] Dreyns@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Most of taiwanese people consider themselves taiwanese and do not want to be part of china again. No matter what happened before people now DO NOT want it or if they so they are now a minority. In case you din't know ujraine was invaded, and without western help it would've been swalloded by russia. You are trying to justify killings and rubles by citing the pastand ignoring the present.

With this kind of mentally everything can be justified. The core of rhe probleme now is much much more simple :

People want to go in someone else home and take it.

This is it, that's all. And if you're for that you need to ask yourself what you're really behind.

I'm personnaly fully against america emperialism and all the shit they do in south america, africa, etc... Their egemony on ecomy that is hurting all the planet, their lazyness torward climate change etc egc I'm agaisnt CCP repression of those they do not consider worthy, and their policy on privacy and their effort to control south asia. Etc etc...

Once you start to look closely everybody is an asshole because they are BUT this does not EVER justify senseless killing over patriotism, sovereignty, or wtv the fuck.

[-] Flyberius@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They don't need to invade Taiwan. Taiwan will naturally gravitate towards the winning horse as we are seeing with many other countries around the world. Obviously for countries like Taiwan and South Korea this will be harder as they are essentially just gigantic US army bases, but it will happen.

If a war does occur over Taiwan you can bet that it will be instigated by the US.

[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

For the US, at least, I don't think the people care enough about Taiwan to support going to war.

[-] Longpork_afficianado@lemmy.nz 21 points 1 year ago

The average citizen probably isnt informed enough to know how critical taiwanese manufacturing is to nearly all Western electronics, but I doubt that level of strategic importance is lost to the politicians who will be making the decision.

[-] Dyf_Tfh@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

The thing is that semi fab are extremely fragile. For example, there was a Samsung memory fab where a few minutes of electricity black out killed months of production.

Basically it is impossible to protect Taiwan's fab. Those fab, by being the best in the world, are actually Taiwan's best line of defense. As soon as they lose this advantage, they are doomed.

[-] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 12 points 1 year ago

I see what you're saying, but it is really easy to drum up support, especially with how effective the media has become at manipulating public opinion. I've seen the US go to war over much less in my life.

[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

True, Iraq and Afghanistan became deeply unpopular. I guess they could drum up enough anti-China sentiment for a few years.

[-] AnyProgressIsGood@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

You go to amazing lengths to ignore the argument.

Do the Taiwanese wanna be ruled by genocidal authoritarians? Nope

the end...

Pro human decency tip. Ya can't impose your will on people. Maybe that's the concept you fail at grasping

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

soldiers are blockheaded idiots, more at 11. imagine fetishizing your own agonizing death getting shredded or drowning on some awful beach fighting your countrymen. couldn't be me.

all power to the peaceful reunification of China mao-clap

[-] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Not really news. Of course soldiers are going to say nationalistic things.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


China has released a new documentary about the army’s preparations to attack Taiwan, showcasing soldiers pledging to give up their lives if needed, as Beijing continues to ramp up its rhetoric against the self-ruled island.

“Chasing Dreams”, an eight-part series aired by state broadcaster CCTV last week to mark the 96th anniversary of the People Liberation Army (PLA), features military drills and testimonials by dozens of soldiers, of which several express their willingness to die in a potential attack against Taiwan.

They serve to fan rising Chinese nationalism and display military confidence against Taiwan and, implicitly, its ties with the United States.

The “Chasing Dreams” documentary showcased, among other things, the PLA’s “joint sword” drills, which simulated precision strikes against Taiwan.

Li Peng, a pilot from Wang Hai Squadron under the PLA air force, echoed the statement, saying his “fighter jet would be the last missile rushing towards the enemy if, in a real battle, I had used up all my ammunition”.

Fan Lizhong, a special tactics unit commander, said in the docuseries that while losing comrades was painful, he had to remain calm to respond to emergencies and always be ready to fight.


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] TurboHarbinger@feddit.cl 3 points 1 year ago

Water is wet

[-] AnyProgressIsGood@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Ahhhh propaganda. Humans suck at filtering it

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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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