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.

  • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    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@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      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@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        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.

        • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          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@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            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@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              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.

    • tortillaPeanuts@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

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

      • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        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.

      • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        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@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

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

    • jaschen@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

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

      • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        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@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          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.

          • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            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.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            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@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              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@lemmy.ml
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                4 months ago

                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@lemm.ee
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                  4 months ago

                  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.