'Stop threatening Taiwan', its new president William Lai tells China

Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president William Lai has called on China to stop threatening the island and accept the existence of its democracy.

He urged Beijing to replace confrontation with dialogue, shortly after being sworn in on Monday.

He also said Taiwan would never back down in the face of intimidation from China, which has long claimed the island as its own.

China responded by saying, “Taiwan independence is a dead end”.

“Regardless of the pretext or the banner under which it is pursued, the push for Taiwan independence is destined to fail,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at the daily press briefing on Monday afternoon.

YeetPics,

Inb4 tankies explain why it’s morally correct to disappear/murder anyone asking for what KKKhina isn’t offering at will.

nucleative,

I don’t know much about the internal politics of Taiwan but I think playing the diplomatic game strategically is pretty crucial here. If the world has to take sides, I’m afraid for Taiwan.

cecinestpasunbot,

You’re not wrong. The CPC see Taiwanese independence as a threat because the US prevented them from taking it during the Chinese civil war. The US knows this and clearly intends to use Taiwan as a pressure point to gain diplomatic leverage against China. That makes it a high stakes game with the Taiwanese people caught in the middle and no resolution in sight.

Given that context, it’s not surprising most people in Taiwan want to maintain the status quo and prevent any escalation. However, as tensions rise between the US and China the political tensions in Taiwan rise with them.

douglasg14b,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

I like how they say Taiwan Independence is a dead end.

Taiwan is already independent. China wants to undo that, but they make sure to word it as if Taiwan is a rebelling State instead.

cecinestpasunbot,

They treat Taiwan that way because the Chinese civil war was never fully resolved. The US interfered to prevent the communists from taking Taiwan and ousting Chiang Kai-shek’s fascist KMT. As such, the CPC sees persistent US support for Taiwanese independence as an implicit threat against their sovereignty.

jaschen,

Taiwanese living in Taiwan here. We have been removing Chiang Kai Shek monuments from everywhere because he doesn’t represent Taiwan anymore. We are not old China. We are Taiwan.

thechadwick,

Man is it refreshing to hear a Taiwanese perspective in the mix. Every post, every comment is a bunch of armchair “experts” talking about an issue they clearly haven’t the slightest personal experience or context for. Not to come off as a jerk but it sure would be nice to hear what the actual people involved think instead of rank speculation. Reminds me of all the infectious disease experts during covid and military strategists in Feb 2022.

cecinestpasunbot,

Sure but the tensions between China and the US never went away. You may not have Chiang Kai Shek seeking US support in order to invade the mainland. That much is true. However, the US is still very much interested in keeping Taiwan within its sphere of influence as part of a militaristic strategy of containment aimed at China.

I don’t think the US state department cares much for the welfare of Taiwanese people in all of this. If you have any doubts about how the US operates all you have to do is look at its relationship with Israel today.

jaschen,

Honestly, Japan and South Korea will be like Estonia with Ukraine.

Xi isn’t planning on stopping in Taiwan. They are already aiming for the countries in the south China seas and Korea and Japan.

It’s not a Taiwan problem. It’s a global problem.

cecinestpasunbot,

Then I’m not sure you know much about the motivations of Xi, the CPC, or the US for that matter. Since the 80s both sides only real interest has been economic growth. The US was fine with Chinas growth for decades as long as they provide the US a source of cheap labor. However now, China’s economy is actually larger than the US’s in terms of purchase power parity. If left unchecked China would become the economic center of the world without firing a single shot.

The US is clearly worried about losing it’s economic dominance as the worlds only superpower. That’s why it’s made contingency plans for how to confront China militarily. If they tried to subdue China through an invasion it wouldn’t work. China is a nuclear power and that would spell the end of the world. What they could do instead is use islands off the coast of China to enforce a naval blockade of the mainland. From South Korea, to Japan including Okinawa, to the Philippines the US is stationing military assets all the way down the coast. Taiwan would serve as the linch pin to that plan.

Again I have to repeat the US is not the defender of liberal democracy that they claim to be. The people of Taiwan should be clear eyed about that.

jaschen,

Nobody knows Xi’s true motivation.

The UK was once a super power and we didn’t need to form some sort of blockcade with the UK. Because their interest aligned with the US. Along with Taiwan and Japan and all the other NATO countries.

Rusty,

There is No War in Ba Sing Se.

zephyreks,

Maybe Lai should figure out his own legislature first 🤷

Feels like he’s trying to deflect away from the absolute fuckfest that his legislature has become by pointing at a bogeyman. After ,all, how

tortillaPeanuts,

I don’t understand how that article relates to Taiwan at all. It seems like a dispute between China and Australia.

zephyreks,

He’s deflecting on a fucking non-issue because he doesn’t want to admit that his policy of antagonizing China isn’t working and the opposition (KMT+TPP) have increasing power.

YeetPics,

Whatever you say, xinny.

zephyreks,

Do you know anything about Taiwanese politics? Jesus Christ.

gmtom,

.ml detected, opinion rejected.

zephyreks,

Lai is objectively fucked in his own legislature. Both the KMT and TPP are opposed to the DPP (enough to set aside their own differences)… And they hold the majority in the legislature.

Apollo42,

You can’t see why a plane launching flares in the path of a helicopter in international waters is problematic?

zephyreks,

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/9c431a40-5103-4cf6-a464-617958dbb801.jpeg

Apollo42,

in international waters

zephyreks,

US F-22s intercept Russian fighter jets, fire warning flares

yawn

Apollo42,

Did you read the article, or are you just not smart enough to work why that is different?

jaschen,

How much does Pooh bear pay you or are you just a zinglet doing this shit for free?

zephyreks,

The facts are that Lai’s legislature is a fucking mess domestically. It’s breaking out into fistfights, people are trying to steal away bills to prevent them getting passed, and the KMT+TPP are much more unified than expected.

Lai was only elected because of FPTP and he needs to project legitimacy in the face of the KMT+TPP opposition (who, together, received something like 60% of the vote). This is him attempting to do so.

jaschen,

I didn’t ask about that. We got our own problems, but they are our problems. How about you mind your fucking business and just leave us the fuck alone. We ain’t never going to join the CCP no matter how much they pay you.

alcoholicorn,

We got our own problems, but they are our problems.

Don’t worry, we’re getting ready to give you problems so big you’ll forget you ever had any problems.

How about you mind your fucking business and just leave us the fuck alone.

[laughs in American]

jaschen,

Barking dogs don’t bite, Mr Paper Dragon.

If you’re gonna do it, do it. Stop giving us empty warnings. We ain’t scared of you.

alcoholicorn, (edited )

You should be, look at literally every place we’ve “supported”. Yall are gonna look like Ukraine or Iraq or Libya or Yugoslavia or Somalia if Raytheon and it’s politicians get their way again. They’d love nothing more than to fight the PRC to the last drop of Taiwanese blood.

jaschen,

Japan and Korea are set to fight alongside us. They know they will be next.

Have you heard of the 1.6nm chip Taiwan just invented? Wanna know who doesn’t get these new chips once Taiwan is in China’s hands? We got at least 10 years before they even come close to catching up.

Ukraine is just a buffer from Russia.

alcoholicorn, (edited )

Wanna know who doesn’t get these new chips once Taiwan is in China’s hands

Everybody. Our own war games show we won’t be able to hold Taiwan, unless we focused our entire military on that singular task and had future technology that doesn’t actually exist, so we can assume they’d destroy TSMC to deny it to the enemy.

I would be surprised if even those wargames weren’t wildly optimistic about readiness of reserve equipment, when we mobilized some marine divisions for Iraq, parts of aircraft that wasn’t supposed to fail over the life of the aircraft and were no longer manufactured were failing.

Ukraine is just a buffer from Russia.

Ukraine is a bleeder; the US will continue to provide weapons and training to right-wing elements in Ukraine long after the Ukraine government loses its appetite for war. That was the strategy with Afghanistan in the 80s, and Russia can’t retreat from this one since it’s right on their border.

My point is that a status quo where reunification remains some time in the distant future forever is infinitely better for you guys than what war would entail.

zephyreks,

Lai is lashing out because the KMT+TPP coalition want to pass a bill that shifts power from the executive branch to the legislative branch.

The horror.

jaschen, (edited )

Calm down tankie. You will be ok. Keep drinking that Kool-Aid.

zephyreks,

Supporting the KMT or the TPP is a tankie position.

Chadus_Maximus,

Sure bud

MrSpArkle,

My favorite part of China saying Taiwan isn’t a country is where we say we agree but still sell Taiwan hundreds of fighter jets and missiles.

dubyakay,

we == ?

GreatAlbatross,
@GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk avatar

Countries toeing the line to allow CCP China to save face, while also selling defense equipment to Taiwan.

jaybone,

Why should we toe the line though? Fuck then.

Objection,

Because the policy of deliberate ambiguity is consistent with what Taiwanese people want and has successfully maintained peace for over 40 years while still allowing Taiwan to be functionally independent.

But, you know, who cares about peace and prosperity for ordinary people when our leaders could score a couple political points against their leaders, amirite?

akakunai,

As of a few years ago at least, most Taiwanese people were in favour of keeping relations as they are and neither expanding nor severing Chinese relations from status quo. They already operate as their own country, so a push towards further separation is mostly only symbolic anyway and they don’t want to provoke China and their current peace for a symbolic gesture. I think that by treating Taiwan as its own country but not identifying it as such, we are acting as most Taiwanese wish.

driving_crooner,
@driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br avatar

Guess OP own Lockheed Martin shares or something

afraid_of_zombies,

Hey if Western Taiwan wants fighter jets and missiles they have to learn to be nicer.

jaschen,

Taiwanese person here. We need to get a special VISA to go to China. Even their immigration thinks we are independent.

tsonfeir,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

Billy has balls. 💪

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