• CascadeOfLight [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The problem, of course, is that you’ve come wading into an argument with absolutely no evidence. Here are the actual opinions of the citizens of the Republic of China:

    As you can see, the most popular options are “Decide later” and “Decide never”. “Independence now!” as a choice has never quite beaten “No response”.

    Nor is that really surprising - independence as a political project only appeared in the mainstream in any capacity with the founding of the DPP (Democratic Prograssive Party) in 1986. For the first 37 years, the island was controlled exclusively by the KMT (Kuomintang) as a one-party military dictatorship that not only considered itself part of China, but the rightful rulers of the whole of China! Here’s the insignia of the RoC Marine Corps, showing the full extent of the territories claimed by the Republic of China:

    As you can see, it not only includes the mainland but large areas of several neighbouring states including almost the whole of Mongolia. The KMT old guard, as much as remain in politics anyway, are actually furious about the idea of claiming independence, because it would mean renouncing the whole rest of China!

    • hangdognail@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      And yet, using your own chart, unification with the mainland seems to be quite unpopular. Why would a nation that had its own problems with dictatorships want to go back to having Winnie the Pooh as President for life?

      • CascadeOfLight [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Firstly, there is only a question of ‘unify or declare independence’ because of continuous pressure from the US Empire for the last half century. Continuing the status quo benefits all parties because the RoC’s largest trading partner is the PRC (obviously, because it’s a country of 1.8 billion people that is literally right offshore) and gradually increasing integration was the obvious natural course.

        Until the US, which still maintains an official One-China policy, decided it needed another way to attack China. But maybe, China really might just smash its way in by force… any day now!

        If events had unfolded based on normal political and economic trends, Taipei would probably have ended up as an autonomous province under the PRC, similar to Hong Kong or Macau, because the Chinese central government is comparatively hands-off and local governments are mostly allowed to do their own thing - a policy started under Mao called (I love Chinese policy names) Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let One Hundred Schools of Thought Contend.

        Oh, but of course you thought the entire Chinese population was controlled directly by Xi Jinping like units in an RTS, didn’t you? Because you’re a know-nothing racist fuckwit - or not, after all, it’s okay to say that asian people are yellow-skinned and beady-eyed if they’re enemies of the US! Xi is going to finish his third term, see out the opening stages of the Belt and Road Initiative, then retire like every other Chinese President and foreigners with full bellies and too much time on their hands will cope and seethe that the next one is also a horrible dictator (until that one retires too).