Summary

Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated in his New Year’s speech that Taiwan’s “reunification” with China is inevitable.

China has escalated military activity around Taiwan, including frequent incursions near the island and sanctions on U.S.-linked companies over arms sales to Taipei.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te rejected Beijing’s claims, stating Taiwan’s future can only be decided by its people.

Lai also criticized China’s restrictions on travel and education exchanges with Taiwan, calling for dignified, reciprocal relations based on goodwill and equality.

    • j4p@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Get the sentiment, but just a friendly reminder that most Taiwanese people don’t love the “West Taiwan” meme as it props up the outdated idea that Taiwan wants to make a claim to China, when the vast majority are in favor of just being left alone. This isn’t two aggressors laying claim to each other, it’s one threatening the other.

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    Sounds rather rapey when you put it that way, doesn’t it?

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Very. But I still expect to see plenty of hypocritical leninists ignoring or defending this. Telling us that Daddy Xi is only killing them for their own good. And that if they just lay back and took it that they would learn to enjoy it.

      Not that it’s ever made sense that they defend certain capitalists. While denouncing capitalism and other capitalist governments.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 days ago

    great so that means the CCP is stepping down and letting the ROC government back into Beijing to govern a reunified China? Excellent news if true.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    If Taiwan isn’t building attack marine and air drones like fucking crazy right now they are incredible idiots. I would be mass producing that shit like a motherfucker and preparing to blow up the chip factories incase shit goes south.

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    8 days ago

    Didn’t have Occupied China stepping down and recognizing the legitimate government in Taiwan on my 2025 bingo card

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    8 days ago

    It’s gross how they always refer to these things as “reunifying”.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      Why isn’t that an appropriate term? It was part of China’s (Qing) territory from 1684 until the Japanese occupations, and is only disunified because of an unresolved civil war. Taiwan (officially the “Republic of China”) considers themself to be China. So why wouldn’t their combination be the reunification of China?

      • kshade@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Taiwan was never part of current China though and does not want to be absorbed into that state. Reunification doesn’t sound right for what China would have to do to make it happen.

        • comfy@lemmy.ml
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          7 days ago

          Reunification doesn’t sound right

          It’s an objective term for when states join into a single state, like the unification of Italy for example. It’s not about approval or disapproval, I’m not taking a side by calling it reunification.

          • kshade@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            The re- prefix does have implications that go beyond any two states becoming one. Germany’s case is a bit different anyway because it was external forces splitting the country.

        • Mikrochip@feddit.org
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          7 days ago

          Taiwan was never part of current China though

          The same was true for East and West Germany and that, err, merger is generally considered to be a reunification.

          But I agree with the rest you wrote, so I guess it’s a moot point anway.

        • comfy@lemmy.ml
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          7 days ago

          Not an authoritarian, not even taking a side. I’m pointing out that unification is the term for resolving partitions to form a single state.

          • mohammed_alibi@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            So its no longer an authoritarian government for 38 years now. Thanks for pointing that out!

            In the mean time Xi is serving his 3rd term in PRC right now, or 4th? Ignoring the rules set up by his predecessors. And you think that’s better?

      • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        If you want something that doesn’t want you- what do YOU call it?

      • etuomaala@sopuli.xyz
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        8 days ago

        Yeah, some of 'em. Most of them are just regular Chinese people repeating what they’ve been told, though. I’ve talked with all kinds of Chinese people like that, and truly, when I’m not being a dick about it, it is amazing how quickly I can change their minds. “Quickly” here means “in a month”. Not during the first conversation. Be gentle.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Oh is the PRC going to surrender to the ROC? Because Taiwan was never part of the PRC. For there to be reunification, the PRC would have to give mainland China back to the ROC.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Taiwan is China!

    China will take back Taiwan!

    Taiwan belongs to China!

    Nothing can stop China from taking Taiwan

    so which is it Poohboy? either it’s yours or it ain’t. once you make up your mind and decide to stop this weak bitch posturing come and get it. The Navy will be waiting.

    • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      You mean… “Reunified.” Think of it like Russia’s “special military operation” only with less genocide.

  • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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    9 days ago

    I wouldn’t want to be getting into a shooting war after seeing what Russia has got itself into. Fuck, Russia lost its fleet to a country without a navy.

    Does Xi think he can keep a land army supplied in the era of drones taking out surface combatants?

    • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It is not the same though.

      Firstly, Russians are inefficient and inept as fuck, Chinese are not.

      Secondly, Ukraine had a strong support of both EU and the US. Now Trump is going to be in power and this cunt will happily let China take over Taiwan.

      Thirdly, Ukraine is 600k km2. Taiwan is 36k.

      • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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        9 days ago

        Everyone in the lead up to the Russian invasion thought Russia had a world class army (besides some analysts like Philips O’Brien). Three day invasion is how many western analysts were spinning it (Michael Koffman is the one I remember talking about this). I think it is a stretch to believe that the Chinese military is any better, especially since their last fight was, what, in the 70s against Vietnam?

        Ukraine doesn’t have a giant moat around it. Taiwan does. Amphibious warfare is much much much harder than land based war. Probably by like 2 orders of magnitude at least. Keeping an army supplied in that environment is very very hard and that was before drones made defense warfare extremely effective. The US stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine for a few months last year and they held the line quite well just with their drones.

        • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          China hasn’t fought an interstate war in decades. The last well known example was korea. All the other fights they had were with the soviets from 1950 to present. And they lost every one of those border wars

          China is very very inexperienced when push comes to shove.

        • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          I am not going to claim I am a military expert because certainly I am not. I think your arguments don’t hold water though:

          1. It is irrelevant what everyone thought, unless you are asserting Chinese army is as bad as Russian. If so, I would say unlikely on the basis of the entire technological development of both countries. There is also cultural aspect: I worked with number of Russians and Chinese. Russians were sloppy as fuck, nearly all of them. Chinese on the other hand were the most hard working people I have ever seen in my life, again almost all of them. Population size also matters.

          2. Amphibious warfare is only harder until you land and secure even temporary harbour.

          3. You are underestimating importance of western support. “just a few months” is not important - ask yourself where Ukraine would have been now if the US were to not supply anything to them from the very start - and this is the situation Trump is likely to put Taiwan in.

          • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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            9 days ago

            On point two you are correct only if the attacking force has air/sea supremacy like the us did in WWII. With drones I have a very hard time believing that will be the case. That is what makes it hard. Sure landings are brutal, but logistics is a nightmare when you have to supply your troops with vulnerable ships. That is why the Russian navy getting smacked about by Ukraine is so relevant.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        It’s worth noting that there are limited spots you can land on the Taiwan coast for an assault, and they are heavily guarded.

        It’s a very different war up until they can get and maintain a foothold.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        9 days ago

        Now Trump is going to be in power and this cunt will happily let China take over Taiwan.

        Will he? Trump is soft on Russia but wasn’t he pretty hard on China?

        • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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          9 days ago

          Trump is soft on Russia but wasn’t he pretty hard on China?

          Has he ever been tough on China when the cost him anything? Being hard on China has economic consequences.

          • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Trump represents overt corporate oligarchy taking over America. Those people don’t care as long as they live comfortably. The US is building chip factories in the southwest to replace TSMC for domestic use. Once thats completed. Corpos don’t care about Russians and Chinese carving out spheres of influence across the world and killing millions. They only care about their own hides and the last reason to care about overseas affairs would have become redundant.

            And this is the same scenario where millions of Americans are thrown into abject poverty by the deliberate crashing of the economy as technofascist corpos like Elon musk are allowed to shape the economy to their designs.

            Once again. Those corporate only care about their own kind. Everyone else is expendable assets. Whether it be lower and middle class american citizens. Or entire countries. Panama. Canada. Mexico. Ukraine. Taiwan. You can’t appeal to the morals and nature of corporate oligarchs because they’d rather kill you for wasting their time.

      • dellish@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Firstly, Russians are inefficient and inept as fuck, Chinese are not.

        Citation needed. The Chinese largely based their armed forces on the Russian model in a somewhat combined effort, so I suspect they’d be just as shit. It will be interesting to see how much of a fight Taiwan gives them.

        On the second point I have no doubt Trump won’t intervene, however I do find it odd that Musk just finished fucking over the budget bill (whatever its name is) that would have helped fund chip manufacturing in the US just for them to simultaneously hand all Taiwanese chip manufacturing to China. It’s almost like they have no game plan…