- cross-posted to:
- news@hexbear.net
- cross-posted to:
- news@hexbear.net
Full article: https://imgur.com/a/SwMitsV
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I think it’s time to bring some democracy and freedom to Taiwan.
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grappling with Beijing’s growing belligerence.
Its what? Western news is so full of shit.
Developing 5G communications and microchips for cellphones is belligerence. Bombing countries and funneling weapons to proxy wars is peace.
A small country that is economy dependent of another country that happens to be their biggest trader has interest to work with that trading partner.
More at 11
No fucking way! You mean a country that’s almost completely aligned in terms of culture and language and food, and for which immigration policy is basically an open door, and for which economic coupling is at an all time high… trades with their closest neighbour?
Jesus Christ who comes up with these articles?
This is a straight-up national security issue for Taiwan. Its chip factories are an integral part of its defence strategy and it needs to be able to use them as leverage to survive.
In which case Taiwan Province should refuse American demands to build chip factories in the US. If Taiwan’s strategic value comes from microchips then the US not having it’s own domestic supply prevents the US from walking away.
On the other hand, reunification has been a core interest for China since long before microchips were even a thing. You could Thanos snap all the chip foundries away tomorrow and the Chinese interest in reunification would not substantially diminish.
Taiwan’s (the Republic of China’s) alliance with the United States and general defence strategy has a few key factors:
- Taiwan is counting on maintaining a key role in the United States’ high-tech economy. One where, if the island of Taiwan were to fall under the control of the mainland, American economic interests would be severely damaged. The existence of semiconductor factories in America doesn’t affect this calculus too much as long as a critical mass of manufacturing stays in Taiwan. In fact, tying Taiwan’s economy to the United States is beneficial because it means the pain of separating it will be greater, and hopefully the fear of such pain will make the Americans want to protect them.
- Taiwan believes that its location is of strategic importance to the United States’ South Asian military interests. If the island falls under mainland control, it would mean that the US military can no longer access the large amount of airspace surrounding the island and would lose access to the island’s naval facilities.
- Taiwan thinks that it can make a war with the mainland so costly for the latter that it would not make economic sense to invade. This is unrelated to the US; ideology takes a backseat to making money almost anywhere in the world and the Taiwanese know this.
- Taiwan thinks it can rely on popular and government support in America to defend it in the event of an invasion. Public support for Taiwan’s continued autonomous existence is quite high in the US and even Joe Biden’s sometimes erratic comments about the topic are enough to make leaders in Beijing think twice before invading. The Americans are unpredictable and they don’t want to leave it up to a roll of the dice.
Taiwan is counting on maintaining a key role in the United States’ high-tech economy. One where, if the island of Taiwan were to fall under the control of the mainland, American economic interests would be severely damaged. The existence of semiconductor factories in America doesn’t affect this calculus too much as long as a critical mass of manufacturing stays in Taiwan. In fact, tying Taiwan’s economy to the United States is beneficial because it means the pain of separating it will be greater, and hopefully the fear of such pain will make the Americans want to protect them.
Exactly my point. The interest of Taiwan Province is to have the critical mass of such manufacturing stay in the RoC, whereas the interest of the US is to have the critical mass of such manufacturing move to the US. Given these divergent strategic interests, it is the best interest of the RoC to sell chips to the US instead of allowing the US to make its own chips. The US doesn’t have a supply alternative to TSMC yet, so exporting RoC tech and factories to the US is weakening the RoC position and creating their own competitor (assuming the US doesn’t fuck up its own factories).
Taiwan thinks that it can make a war with the mainland so costly for the latter that it would not make economic sense to invade. This is unrelated to the US; ideology takes a backseat to making money almost anywhere in the world and the Taiwanese know this.
My dude, the entire ROC military is completely controlled by the KMT. Yeah, a military that’s institutionally controlled by the status quo party is going to fight to the last man while Tsai Ing-wen and William Lai take the first flight to Japan. The government might have transitioned away from a KMT military dictatorship during the 90s, but the actual military hasn’t moved away from its KMT military dictatorship roots, especially the top brass. Taiwanese separatists have a reputation for dodging conscription, so in the end, you have a top brass that’s still nostalgic about the Chiang Ching-kuo days and a bunch of enlisted and conscripted soldiers who don’t care a whole lot about Taiwanese separatism. There’s a reason why the DPP has continuously and successfully run on “the KMT will sell out Taiwan to the CPC” in order to win seats, most recently in the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election.
There’s a decent chance there won’t be an invasion anyways because the KMT cut a backroom deal with the CPC.
Except… It’s really not? Taiwan’s chip factories are simply leverage to drag the West into any potential conflict between the PRC and ROC. Taiwan’s defence strategy involves being an island in the ocean built up of mountains, jungle, and cities (all terrain where the defender is extremely favoured), mandatory military service for citizens, and being so economically/culturally tied to the mainland that it’s infeasible to break off relations. Taiwan is basically seeking reunification without explicitly seeking reunification: their core defensive strategy relies on being as close to China as possible while being too painful to actually invade.
Of course, this kind of policy didn’t help Cuba, but…
I don’t understand the comparison to Cuba, do you mind explaining?
Cuba ended up getting blockaded because they were too hard to invade lol
Sorry, “quarantined”
Because a blockade would be a declaration of war
Good. Not only one country or society should be able to manufacture advanced technology. Monopolies are bad.
It’s like people have already forgotten about the COVID microchip shortages.
China is helping China develop Chinese chips?
Republic of China ≠ People’s republic of China.
Well yes. One is the result of a bloodthirsty and corrupt military dictatorship which is directly responsible for the deaths of millions, whereas the other is the People’s Republic of China.
However, both are China as you can see from the names they’ve chosen for themselves.
One is one of the most democratic countries in the world and PRC is one of the most undemocratic countries of the world.
Only the PRC is recognized as a country under international law. The RoC government squatting in Taiwan Province is legally no different to the ISIS occupation of parts of Iraq.
The PRC is one of the few truly sovereign states in the world, able to resist American domination on its own terms. The residents of Taiwan Province get to vote between stooges of American imperialism and stooges of Japanese imperialism.
The rest of the world is seemingly too scared to upset the PRC so many won’t recognize Taiwan. Many countries maintain unofficial relationships.
It’s obviously a country and it’s useless discussing this further with a tankie.
The PRC is one of the few truly sovereign states in the world, able to resist American domination on its own terms.
How do you define “American domination” and what other countries do you consider to be affected by it? Personally I don’t feel dominated by idiots.
It’s obviously a country and it’s useless discussing this further with a tankie.
Renowned Tankies, the states parties to the Montevideo Convention. Hardcore Stalinists, the lot of them!
How do you define “American domination” and what other countries do you consider to be affected by it?
“It’s useless discussing with a Tankie!”, proceeds to discuss with a Tankie. Very good rhetoric, 10/10.
So you can’t define it. What a shocker.
Sometimes it’s just funny to discuss things with morons. It makes you feel like a genius in comparison.
“one of the most democratic countries in the world” might be a bit of a stretch here
Democracy is when you spend several decades murdering and repressing all leftist political opposition. The more leftists to murder and suppress, the more democratic it is.
- State Department Handbook, probably
Democracy is when the people can vote for their politicians instead of countries like the PRC where they are forced.
Democracy is when the people can vote for
their politicians instead of countries like the PRC where they are forced.a selection of candidates handpicked by the US government.If you were forced to vote for people would you be satisfied or dissatisfied with your government?
Then why does China have a 95.5% approval rating for their government that spans 15 years?
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Yeah. Not many know that Taiwan is the true China, waiting for the mainland
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There’s really nothing to continue. Of course on your take we could consider that the mainland Chinese people are China and some day they’ll have a new revolution from the oligarchy. But I’m not holding my breath on that happening anywhere
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I don’t know if oligarchy has different definitions somewhere. I meant this:
oligarchy /ˈɒlɪɡɑːki/, noun
a small group of people having control of a country or organization.
If the Chinese help China build this Chinese infrastructure, it may reduce Chinese dependence on Chinese chips, since China will be able to produce its own chips instead of buying them from China. This may hurt China economically long term, since China is the largest buyer of Chinese chips by far and if they start buying chips produced in China instead of Chinese chips China’s economy might shrink.
Then again this is probably not that big a deal. Just more anti-Chinese propaganda by the US, pushing for Chinese independence from China, without quite going all the way and recognizing China as its own country, since that would go against the long standing policy that China is one country and China is part of that country.
Okay but how much wood would a wood chuck chuck tho?
A LOT. If those fuckers could chuck wood I would even go so far as to say probably all of it.
