The example is not a good one. Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and the Americans are explorers. They built their own countries in lands far away from the UK. They supported UK with their own sons' lifes during WWII. They are peoples that deserve respects. On the other hand, what are the Taiwan independence supporters doing? They are anti-China, anti-Chinese and pro Japanese colonial rule. They are willing to be an ally of any other country that is against China. How can China let such people to do whatever they want?
You seem to have just made my point for me. Just as those lands which were once part of a country and no longer are can change ownership or status as with Tibet and "the new territories", so to does it apply to Taiwan. Does not the coin have two sides? China no longer has effective control of Taiwan, which has it's own government and seperate culture. Any past claims by China are irrelivant. The only reason that the US didn't force the issue for formal independance 50 years ago was that Truman was a horible racist and didn't care enough about SE Asian peoples to force a war with the 7th fleet. Thankfully, we have become more enlightened in the past 50 years. Taiwan, though, has all of the trappings, institutions, and structures of a fully independent country. Where there's smoke there's fire. In short, where is the PRC's empire now in Taiwan? I might be willing, on purely philosophical grounds to accept the logic of your arguement if it was consistant with respect to the Uighurs and the Tibetians, but apparently it only applies selectively.
This keeps comming up as some sort of sneer that has no basis in fact. Japan, despite it's close proximity and economic power is third in trade to Taiwan, behind the US and PRC. Japanese peoples do not comprise any quantifiable percentage of the Taiwanese population and culturally and religiously, the peoples of Taiwan and Japan are as distinct as are the peoples of Taiwan and Vietnam, or Taiwan and South Korea. This aside, however, if it were somehow true, how do you think it would reflect on China, that these Taiwanese people would supposedly rather be second-class Japanese slaves, instead of equal citizens of the PRC? The arguement reflects poorly on you.
Japan is more advanced than China today. To be affiliated with the Japanese make the Taiwanese proud. Some Taiwanese also like to tell you that they were once ruled by the Dutch. Another factor is that the U.S. is the only super power in the world and China is the biggest potential challenger. So, any country that is anti-China will be encouraged by the U.S. morally and economically. During WWII, several hundred thousand Taiwanese joined the Japanese army to invade China, Southeast Asia, and fougt the Americans. The brother of former president Li Denghui died in Philipines fighting the Americans. Does this reflects poorly on Chinese? Yes, it does. But every country has traitors. Because of the large Chinese population, we may have more traitors than other countries. Like today's U.S., China has been a leader of the world, and for a long time. That is why many Chinese understand Americans very well because their country has been there, done that. This is the difference between China and some other developing countries. People in some countries just don't have the self confidence and quality to make their country a leader. They simply don't have the heart of a champion and cannot understand the heart of a champion.
Keep ignoring India. She is quickly catching up and, in some ways, surpassing China. And India sees China as her greatest long-term threat. I have to say that the incredible chauvinist attitudes of some of you is a sad thing to see. You make it sound like Chinese policy is a Sly Stallone movie. If only the world were that simple. You talk about Taiwan longing for the days of Japanese colonial rule. What a laugh! The United States has been "sitting" on Japan since the end of WW II. We remain there. The temptation is great to encourage them to re-arm but, largely, we have resisted it. Someday, we may decide it is no longer in our interest to do so. Let's hope the policies of China don't encourage a radical change in our policy towards Japan. Something to think about while saber-rattling at Taiwan and doing little for the last 50+ years to control the behavior of North Korea.
You're sounding like the British after they lost the US Revolutionary war. and for the most part Taiwan was populated by Chinese explorers who came from the mainland and built their own society and later joined by others who fought the Japanese in WWII. Yet even those Chinese who came after WWII don't want to reunite with the mainland under the present PRC govt. Don't these people deserve respect or they traitors too? Now you're sounding like the Nazis when they justified the invasion of the Sudatenland by saying that the loyal Germans there were being oppressed by the Czechs and Germany couldn't let such a threat linger on their borders. I'm not sure exaclty what you mean by this but it sounds like you are saying that you only criticize the US when someone criticizes China for similar actions the US does. So in other words your standard for ethical behavior regarding a country is based only on if you think it is in China's interest. No wonder people like you and Panda would be willing to support a war that will kill millions of Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to reunify China. Y'all are peas in a pods and there no way to sway you if you believe that reunification is worth war that will risk the lives and economic stability of both Taiwan, the PRC and possibly all of Asia.
The Tibet etc belongs to another thread. If somebody is really interested start a new thread and discuss it there. American Chinese are Americans not Chinese etc. Chinese Americans and Chinese don't share the same interests. Singapore has English as the official language. 40% of Singapore people speak English at home. If Taiwan does that I might give it some credits for its claim. Stop over-dramatise things. lol. It's like talking to my son. He keeps on shouting "YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND ME". If you have a tiny respect of your ancestors or even your grandparents you won't say you thank Japanese. But even in the mainland there are tons of youths who loves everything Japanese and don't know the history. Big deal. Now go back to your room and study. (lol, just kidding. Don't overreact that as I look down Taiwan people or some'ing.) Essientially, Chinese and Chinese in Taiwan has mutual interests and the unification will benefit both sides immensely(under a good government, most likely not CCP). You'd be blind if you don't see that. I understand you hate CCP or KMT, I fully respect that. But you shouldn't hate China. CCP is not "my" government, I couldn't care less about it controls Russia or whatever. The status quo though does not require you to join the CCP, there's no document for you to sign. It just requires both sides stay in the "civil war", and stay in "China". If Chen is good he can draw support of 1 billion Chinese and if he won the election and become the president of the whole China then I'll fully respect that as well. Actually I would love A Bien to try that. We can work together you know. We work together.
Plus all these America-Britain comparisons don't make sense. America is so freaken far away from Britain there's no way Britain can maintain its control. They did succeed with Scots and Welsh though.
Nah, without foreign help Taiwan will fall in three months with minimal fighting. Taiwan doesn't have offensive capibility against China and can only wait for its resources to run out with China's navy blocking their trade routes, when their resources run out they have no choice but to surrender. It's naive to assume that a war will kill millions of Chinese on both side. Some exaggeration. Besides, people like you have no respect for people making efforts to protect their human rights while you are the beneficiary of it everyday - "It's doesn't worth risking lives to recover property, oh wait, I let cops die to recover my stolen money."
China wants to keep the status quo and if Taiwan insists playing with fire then they themselves will be responsible for what happens. If Taiwanese believe it's worth war to go independance without the right to do so, while odds of winning isn't on their side, and in the process risking their lives and economy it's a sign of their lack of irrationality.
Actually you're incorrect regarding Singapore. Singapore has 4 official languages, English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. In the past 17 years Singapore has been on a huge push to get all ethnic Chinese to speak Mandarin and now Mandarin has pretty much supplanted English, Hokien and Malay as the common tongue of Singapore. All Singaporeans are taught English but if you plan to be successful in Singapore these days you have to speak Mandarin. In Taiwan these days Minnanese is beginning to supplant Mandarin. There was a NYTimes article on it just the other day. Even the KMT candidate is campaigning in Minnanese. Here's 2 questions for you then. Do you think that Irish independence was wrong? Afterall the Irish are about as ethnically similar with most Brits as most Taiwanese are to the rest of Mainland China. Also do you think that it was wrong for the British government to be decentralizing power to new Scottish and Welsh parliaments?
I know many of the Taiwanese separatist speak with praise of the Japanese occupation and having ancestors who survived the Rape of Nanjing and also spending time throughout SE Asia where Japan committed uncountable attrocities I strongly disagree with this. I think it is as mistaken for Taiwanese seperatist to uphold Japanese occupation as much as it was for Croation separatist to uphold Nazi occupation of the Balkans as a time when Croats were free of the Serbs. That said the argument for Taiwanese independence has nothing to do with what the Japanese did it has to do with what Chinese did in 1949 when the two governments separated. Since then the occupants of Taiwan, both original inhabitants and immigrants have refused to reunify with the PRC. The Japanese are forcefully keeping them apart but the people of Taiwan themselves. If you respect democracy or just care for the lives and well being of the people on Taiwan you should instead of supporting PRC threats, or ridiculous KMT belief that they can recapture the mainland, supporting economicn and political development of both the PRC and Taiwan. That can be done with two independent countries and in time as both get closer in terms of economic status and political status the Taiwanese might agree to a peaceful reunification. After all Germany and France are long ancient enemies and have violently resisted attempts to forcefully take each other over. Yet now that they have grown to become successful democratic countries they have joined together in the European Union.
Maybe I didn't make it clear. Yes English is not the ONLY official language of course. But English is taking over Chinese rather than vas versa. A decade ago 20% of the families speak English at home, now it's 40%. C'mon. Irish has its OWN language to start with. And under the status quo, Taiwan has WAY more freedom and self control than Scotland and Walse. If the CCP is gone in a few years, it would increase still.
