Australia’s defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have “such an extraordinary military build-up”.
On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that “what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War”.
It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.
“It’s the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It’s happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up.”
Why is there any mystery here. They said they intend on ending their civil war and have shown no indication whatsoever that such a statement is only rhetorical or posturing. Taiwan has never tried to be independent of China. It still claims sovereignty over all of China.
If the US Confederates had retreated to Cuba and others had intervened on their behalf, while the Confederates still claimed dominion over a part of the USA, you can bet your ass the US would invade Cuba as soon as they had the opportunity. We can all decry the whole thing, but it is their conflict. If anything, we should be evacuating anyone and anything that needs to leave and capitulating without further involvement. Like if your neighbor and their spouse are arguing, stay out of it for the benefit of everyone. This is not some mate getting abused that needs help. This involves two bloody parties where all sides have done monstrous things and that needs to get resolved one way or another. Both can’t claim dominion over all. The past cannot be bowdlerized for convenience or exploitation for profit of western criminal capitalist abuse. No one needs to fight or die, but a resolution must be found.
Edit: Wow Lemmy is remarkably stupid to the point of incompetent ineptitude at basic fundamental history. Like wtf am I doing here in a room with this insane nonsense.
Taiwan is independent of China, you’ve obviously never been there. They still have the old wartime territory definitions in their constitution because updating their constitution would provoke a violent response from China. Nobody, absolutely nobody, takes those claims seriously.
Do you have a source for that?
they don’t, in any practical sense, and haven’t since Chiang died in the 80s, probably even before that.
however, they are threatened with invasion if they ever update their constitution to reflect reality, because that would be taken as “declaring independence”.(even though they are completely independent anyway)
This is common knowledge available anywhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan_(1945–present)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War
Those all have sources. There are also lots of reputable YouTubers with relevant academic credentials that have coved this, Asianometry and William C Fox are two that I recall covering the subject. I think Caspian Report did as well at one point in the last few years. This is like ultra basic surface level stuff everyone should know or severely question their sources and echo chambers if they are not made aware of this fundamental information.
Expecting people to wade through 8000 word articles in the hope of finding mention of your claim is why you’re being downvoted.
Imagine someone making the claim, ‘Jesus hated gay people, it’s obvious’ and then when probed for a source, responding, ‘this is common knowledge available anywhere:
https://thekingsbible.com/’
Because that’s a history question. “Taiwan” is not a country, it’s a province of the Republic of China (ROC), which was the government of China before the communist revolution. They fled to Taiwan but their constitution etc still define them as the Republic Of China, with territorial claims over all of China
Here is an article specifically on that exact topic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Area
Edit: The main “Taiwan” wikipedia article also has a map that can be selected under the label “Show map of Taiwan (dark green) with ROC Mainland Area and historical claims (light green)”
Many, many countries have ‘historical claims’ that mean nothing in current day geopolitics.
Claiming that ‘Taiwan is not a country’ is enough for me to know that this will not be a fruitful discussion.
Literally the first line of the ‘Taiwan’ Wikipedia article:
“Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia.”
Taiwan is a region of the ROC. The ROC is a country.
It’s complicated.
Unfortunately, the Wikipedia articles I found lack citations, so they probably aren’t a good source. They claim that the ROC (Taiwan) claims all of the mainland.
This reddit thread refers to the ROC constitution and interprets it as:
I don’t know how much of this applies beyond the KMT.
A 4th-grade history book.
Don’t be shy, drop a link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
You can check the territorial claims of the Republic of China (“Taiwan”) under the selector “Show map of Taiwan (dark green) with ROC Mainland Area and historical claims (light green)”
The map is not quite up to date as it still shows the ROC as claiming Taiwan, despite formally granting independance in 2002 (source)
Except to actually make that a proper analogy, the confederacy would gave had to take over nearly all of the US, and the union would be in Cuba. In which case, yeah fuck those confederate bitches.
Also at this point it doesn’t matter. Taiwan is more or less internationally recognized as an independent country so they can both sit the fuck down.