Xi Jinping vows to reunify China and Taiwan in New Year’s Eve speech

A horse can call itself a duck, but that doesn't make it a duck; it's still a horse.

Likewise, a country that calls itself communist while practicing capitalism under a hierarchical ruling party isn't communist. Even if every member of the CCP had equal say in the country's policies and direction, 8% of the total population is far from representing the working class, let alone being led by them.

They're not communist, correct. They're capitalist.

socialism with Chinese characteristics

It's literally the same functional mechanics as free market capitalization EXCEPT that the state owns a part of every company. The people don't. The state does. And only uses it for authoritarian control, which is the Chinese characteristic. China is functionally a capitalist market with state owned companies.

If China controlled the 3rd party companies in the country then maybe it could be construed as socialist but they own nothing about Apple or NVidia yet billions of dollars flow through them. China is an open market that uses subsidies to offset poor management in those companies. Basically the same thing America did to failing companies in 2008 (looking at you GM).

Nice deflection, as all discussion of economic policy is nothing more. Authoritarianism (coercion through power) is right wing by definition.

They have implemented a type of a mixed state that has both socialist and capitalist parts

Personally, I find it very similar to corporatism.

I would describe the CCP political ideology as "authoritarianism" and the economic ideology as "corporatism".

I don't really see anything about the communes, the economy is not socially owned (not run by cooperatives) and the social aspects are veeery limited.

Okay, I looked at what the current President of Taiwan has to say. He says this:

Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent country called the Republic of China.

That's not the same as the PRC.

Since China carefully controls access to information, that's functionally impossible but traditionally corruption by party officials in China was notorious and wide spread. China's only recently been able to tackle it, partially thru advances in technology, but the true extent of their success is difficult to gauge. Critics have also argued that eliminating rivals and ensuring loyalty was the true purpose of anti-coruption efforts. It's suspected that Xi Jinping's extended family has amassed a hidden fortune of around a Billion Dollars.

100%, because Taiwan was in the Japanese Empire from 1895 to 1945, and was pretty much independent from 1945 to the KMT arrival in 1948.

Since when does an "independent Taiwan" exist?

They call themselves the "true" China to this day.

No, not really. It's still in the constitution since the 1940s only because changing it would provoke a military reaction from China. Nobody actually believes it, not since CKS died in the 70s.

You are correct but you have less upvotes so you are wrong

The latest info we have says they don't have the equivalent high end chip prod yet but they're closing in. What you're describing would likely be the reality within several years. That said I think it's not in China's interest to take Taiwan by force since they'd have to live with it. It'll also do enormous damage to their soft power.

TSMC was never a card. China has been wanting Taiwan since before TSMC exists. Taiwan is in a strategic geographic location that makes it difficult to project its navy. It's the same reason the US controls Hawaii, Midway, Guam, and many other seemingly useless pacific islands in the middle of nowhere.

Except that was a peaceful process, not an invasion/annexation. Because part of Taiwan’s strategic defense policy is “we will melt our chip fabs to slag if the PRC invades”. Thus, they hold a gun to the head of pretty much all of the most advanced chip fabrication in the world, which most of the rest of the world has a vested interest in keeping working.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that Taiwan would be happy to be just Taiwan instead of Republic of China, if that got them their UN recognition.

they claim to be the legitimate government of mainland

They have a better claim then the government in Beijing but ultimately lack the force to back it up. They should have just dropped the pipe dream years ago.

I mean it's the same reason the Nazis weren't socialist despite being the national socialist party. It's in name only. I don't see a single way in which China is making steps towards becoming a stateless, classless, moneyless society.

My social credit is like my financial credit - solidly on the road to Chapter 7.

I think you need to have a clearer idea of what left wing and communism are, how the CCP, PRC, and China are different, and know the CCP's argument for Taiwain is. Relately, it would be important to know the ROC's claim as well.

Once you know what communism is, you'll have to ask yourself is the PRC communism? Can a single nation state be communist? How can a single party be legitimately move a government to communism through authoritarian means? How would it work otherwise? Is the CCP position on Taiwain imperialism? Does that argument hold water?

Communism does not exist. I consider myself a leftie but I don't believe in communism, it has never worked and will never work.

What lefties actually believe in (including those who think communism can work) are social systems (part of socialism, which looks like communism, but that's the difference - balance versus extremity). China's social systems are supposedly very good, but they're still capitalists (which isn't necessarily bad if the government does it's job like in most of EU and according to many - China)

But utilitarian measures are there to protect and improve lives. Banning fossil fuels would piss off a minority group, while saving orders of magnitude more human lives. Similar groups have whined about seatbelts, airbags, gas vs. electric/induction ranges, even the amount of water flowing in the toilet bowl.

It's not like there aren't alternatives to ICE vehicles, nor are people being limited in travel or told they can't drive. It will really only take one or two generations for the butthurt whining "authoritarianism" to become a footnote in history. By then, burning gasoline for basic travel will seem as ridiculous as keeping a horse and buggy at the ready does now.

That is dumb. TSMC is comprised of the world's foremost experts in chip technology. They are people, and probably would like to stay in their homeland. Furthermore, it takes at least a decade to build the infrastructure to create microchips, which requires extremely stable geology. A power outage or an earthquake can cause lithography machines to miss their target, ruining months of work.

TSMC is intrinsically tied to the land and people.

No, and no.

Let's be frank: Taiwan doesn't want to belong to anyone, not China nor the west. However, it is a small country that has to use what its got, if it wants to maintain independence. Exchanging access to their chip supply for military aid is likely their best bet for not becoming a forgotten checkmark on Xi's list of "accomplishments".

Also, China has armed merchant vessels with weapons. It is pretty damn clear that China wants to start a fight. Given their behavior against the Philipines, India, and Taiwan, it is clear that China intends to hurt people. It is madness to not prepare for a conflict and push back, else China will enact their imperialist agenda. Be it against the USA, Russia, or China, smaller nations should do what they can to avoid being trod upon. Teaming up is the best way to do that.

China Arms a Container Ship | Picket/Surveillance | First Strike | Cost Effective | Expendable

How will that stop China? Japan's military is very limited (by design).

Japan is but a USA lapdog. They won't do anything that would displease their master.

As it is now, I don't think there would be any armed resistance to China without American opposition.

China is already backing Russia though, the safer course would be to just wait it out until the dollar collapses. On the other hand, such a war may be the last straw on the camel's back for the USA.

The expression is often expanded to that, it is not an incomplete expression without though.

It's a lie. Taiwan has never been part of the PRC, so it's impossible to re-unify.

Yeah, and it was a shit deal for the U.S. colonies, particularly still Puerto Rico which is governed without representation in the government.

It was shit when we did it, it was shit when the European powers did it, and it will be shit if China does it to Taiwan.

When you have to go back 132 years (Hawaii) and 128 years (Puerto Rico) to find a whataboutism you can throw back in a commenter's face - it's probably not very contributory to the conversation.

Hawaiian natives voted to become a state seeking protection from various robber Barrons who were exploiting their land. Prior to that the US government generally took measures against the plantation owners at request of the locals. Yes, that imperialism kind of originated from the US, but it wasn't like an invasion and subjugation.

Puerto rico was ceded to the US after ot defeated Spain in the Spanish American war. It was quickly granted a form of pseudo independence, but then voted for protectorate status over full independence in the early 1900s.

I'm not excusing the USA, two bad does not make right.

Why does every fucking topic, no matter how far it is from US, ends up with someone ranting about US?

In this case, yes. The fabs there are far too important to let them slip control. Now, if we could just build some fabs in Ukraine.

They're not a dependable ally but they need them. I would never depend on the United States being benevolent but I would depend on needing Taiwan to secure strategically important resources like semiconductors.

I think that a more-compelling argument is that if you, in fact, intend to invade Taiwan at any point in the remotely near future, you're probably better off just invading it, not loudly announcing that you will do so at some unspecified point in the future and then sitting around while the potential invadee fortifies itself.

💯

I can see these announcements as placating domestic audiences and the military drills as discouraging the US from a potential intervention by signalling higher difficulty and losses.

Not sure how threatening forceful unification every few months comes under "being nice".

Yup. The trends of rising standard of living in China plus the stagnation and self-destruction of the US are both pointing to closer ties between Taiwan and China over the long term - over the coming decades. Even today the majority in Taiwan prefers status quo and not independence. There's pro-idependence and pro-unification minorities. Besides, I don't think the Chinese want to deal with a separatist population and all the instability that causes, which would imevitaby follow if they annex by force.

Ok, that's not Left-Right though. Left-Right is no kings and kings which over time go expanded into a political spectrum with Anarchy on the Far Left and Absolute Monarchy/Dictatorships on the Far Right.

Well the PLA has barracks inside HK since the handover from the UK. On the other hand, blockading or invading Taiwan would be the largest amphibious invasion in human history

Hong Kong is a small tax haven - Taiwan is a full independent country. I really think we've past the point where physical annexation can work with guerilla warfare and sabotage being so easily accessible in this day and age. I think CCP agrees that's why it'll take a decade to wear Taiwan down still

It became an opportunity, and US investors and interests needed to project power around the globe and a means to tie power around the region. It has its days numbered because China is slowly becoming a more capable competitor, but China's obsession in invading it will not only it but will work towards the interests of other geopolitical powers in and outside the region.

What you claim has also gone the way of USAID when Trump came in: https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3210 It was a soft power technique that put US interests ahead through mutual interests, but Trump doesn't believe in mutual interests, just winners and losers like most despots.

They don't, they are approaching it but don't have the scale. The people smuggling NVIDIA chips instead of using Huawei for AI would be laughing at these claims.

The US is and would be if they were preparing to back out of a conflict between the US and Taiwan. It would take several decades for TSMC capability to be distributed across different countries, even the US isn't going to reach it. I don't know where you are getting the notion that Taiwan is "losing its international status" when the first multitrillion company in the world and its customers is so dependent on it. Taiwan's "international status" isn't conditioned on the companies they can bully to keep from recognizing criticism coming from over there regarding mainland China, it's industrial, technological, and military.

I can agree with some of the things you've said elsewhere. China is a successful country, and given time it will surpass Taiwan in terms of advanced microchip manufacture. It could even decide a fast one by not invading one and essentially causing the bursting of the AI bubble to be that much worse for US investors that have gone all in on it.

The problem with China is that it is also facing economic problems itself, which usually causes the more deranged and desperate notions to be the deciding factor. The enemies it is making internationally and their attempts to impose their will over other countries and their industrial sectors in its rise to power also isn't helping it out, and they aren't even trying or capable of winning a cultural war when part of it requires a great amount more censorship than the societies they want to impose on. It is under an authoritarian government that still has a lot of its founding military mindset. If China was forward thinking and was capable of using PR to control their messaging instead of suppression, they would be a lot more successful and a lot less prone to the internal corruption they now have to deal with, often severely in place of effectively.

That's not "the other way around", that's just why it got to where it is.

We've already seen this scenario over and over, in Syria, in Qatar, etc. He is up for sale, and EVERYBODY knows it.

In Trump's world, there's a price tag on EVERYTHING, and China can afford it. They know that this would be their easiest chance to get it, and I doubt they'll let that opportunity pass.

If the only issue is chips, they'll promise him access to the chips, as well as the bribe. He'll take that without hesitation, they'll renege on their promise, but it will be too late to do anything about it.

And does not challenge that position either.

Taiwan wasn't even part of the civil war you use as the basis of your argument. It wasn't even part of the ROC until the allies gave it to be under the administration of the ROC, sovereignty to be decided at a later date peacefully, following the UN Charter.

Framing this as a frozen civil war is ridiculous, but it's the only way the PRC has some claim to Taiwan.

Do you think China would've become a libertarian socialist country?

You are saying the same thing. He just skips the bullshit everyone peddles on purpose or still eats up the propaganda.

Soviets and bolsheviks were never communists.

They were fascists all along.

You think nazis did not believe they were doing it for the good of all? Come the fuck on.

So now we are trying to justify them by saying that communist regimes were not really communist? I get that ideally Marx had good ideas, but the way they turn out seems to me it's always the same. Someone has to have control and actually make a plan and people are greedy and have lust for power, that's the reality. Also it's not like I'm inventing anything, that's the shoe horse theory.

Dude yes, don't be a tankie. Soviet Union for instance was not kind to Jews, Poles, homosexuals, or people with a faith exactly the same way as Nazi Germany, just replace labour camp with gulag. They literally kept countries under Russian thumb with tanks and the second they could get freedom everyone choose independence.

Auth left and auth right share many similarities

It's a common term on the Right