Taiwan expressed thanks and China was upset on Wednesday after Donald Trump signed into law legislation requiring the U.S. State Department to regularly review and update guidelines on how the United States officially interacts with Taipei.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, and the issue is a constant source of irritation in Sino-U.S. relations given Beijing views the democratically-governed island as its own.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters more frequent reviews of the guidelines would allow Taiwanese officials into federal agencies for meetings, for example, though the legislation does not make explicit mention of this.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China firmly opposes any form of official contact between the United States and “the Taiwan region of China”.
The Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which Trump signed into law on Tuesday, says the U.S. State Department should carry out reviews of contacts with Taiwan no less than once every five years.
Excuse my reading comprehension, but aren’t these reviews a thing that can go in both positive and negative ways? Is Taiwan celebrating just because, “Hey, the US officially mentioned us!”?
It’s just so odd to me. Like, the historical parallel here would be if during the US civil War the Confederate army retreated to the Florida Keys and the Union was never able to conquer them due to other international conflicts.
So for 30 years the Confederates rule there with slavery and a dictatorship over the people. All the while they keep calling themselves “The real America”
The “Keys” see progress eventually following a less hostile relationship with the Union and have their dictatorship replaced by a more liberal form. A normalizing could occur and diplomatic relations between the Keys and the rest of America could occur peacefully and under the wishes of the existing people of the Keys.
BUT, for some reason some other country on the other side of the world has been establishing military alliances and bases near the Keys. They are “allies” with the Keys but on paper acknowledge the Union as the “real America”.
Say what you want about China today. But, what the fuck is America even doing here? They don’t reduce tensions with Taiwan or “protect it”. They don’t care about democracy. They literally supported its fascist leaders for decades. America’s hostile invasion of Korea to support fascist over communist is the entire reason that Taiwan was never captured by mainland China during their civil war. They did not want to risk conflict with the Western state that was doing everything to install loyal dictators in Korea and their neighbors.
China can have bad intentions and not give the people of Taiwan their now rightful self determination. I’m not saying that isn’t true. But, holy shit, Americans just eat up the “we have to be a part of ever conflict ever”. Like, can we just let that play out? We’re clearly not interested in Taiwan because we care about “freedom”. Did we learn nothing from the middle east?
That is not why the US cares about it. The US will abandon them (or bomb them) if it’s beneficial to US oligarchs to do so. Can we get some healthcare and stop worrying about what China does in its own backyard?
To be an enemy of the US is dangerous. To be an ally of the US is fatal.
.ml
0 substance response #2
Taiwan is a representative democracy now, not a dictatorship.
I think a slightly better analogy, if you’re serious, would be the relationship of the U.S. and Cuba (to make you feel better, I’ll go along with your propaganda and pretend that the U.S. is the only bad guy in the world).
So, China and Taiwan are like if the U.S. tried to control Cuba and failed, and then some other country from the other side of the world (just for example, let’s suggest it was Russia), stepped in to prop up and protect Cuba.
So, can you see how maybe what would be best for everyone is that the Cubans should get to decide on their own how they are governed? Much like the people of Taiwan, through their representative democracy, should be able to tell China to piss off already.
Taiwan never had been under PRCs control. The Union and Confederacy aren’t comparable to PRC and ROC.
But, if in your analogy the civil war ended decades ago and the successor of the Confederacy would be under the threat of invasion by the Union, of course it could be justified to arm the successor of the Confederacy and to defend them in case of war.
On the other hand, in the analogy, nations could ignore one of the sides in case of slavery, aggressive foreign policies, general human rights abuses, global strategy and economics or whatever.
“The Florida Keys were never under control of the United States”
That what you just said if we’re keeping the analogy true.
Then you essentially justified the arming and support of a slave owning state by “a foreign nation” if that slave owning state was being threatened. Which (clarifying the analogy) is the US supporting the very much fascist state of Taiwan in its inception and it’s authoritarian rule for over three decades.
And, again, literally zero responses on why the US needs to be involved in every single conflict across the world.
Like, I have the obvious answer to this. But, my comment was meant to make you actually think. Instead, you somehow justified defending a slave state in the analogy.
To be clear, I would support a democratic successor to the confederation that respects human rights and comes to terms with its past, and is threatened by an authoritarian Union that does not respect human rights. However, I don’t think this analogy is helpful at all.
I wish more countries would support Taiwan as the US does. I would particularly like to see my country take a stronger stance on this issue. Unlike China, Taiwan is a free and democratic state today. Taiwan has been a de facto independent state since 1949.
