• erranto@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    He is not technically wrong, as the Taiwanese themselves haven’t declared independence from China.

    • erranto@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      So they are not independent then. not even their staunchest ally (USA) recognizes their Independence, so I don’t see where is the controversy with Irish PM’s statement.

    • Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it
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      10 months ago

      Yes, but that stems more from the fact that the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China both lay claims to be the real China.

      You can’t really declare independence from yourself.

      Also the PRC would probably attack immediately if the ROC gave up their claim on being china.

      • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        All I heard is USA claiming to bomb TSMC if Taiwan ever wanted to go back and unify with mainland China. You may go check it, it is a real threat.

        • Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it
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          10 months ago

          Not sure if I would call it a threat.

          Congressman Seth Moulton prposed to do this in May '23. Taiwan obviously wasn’t happy about that proposal.

          Then there’s also a statement by former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien from March '23 where he said that “I can’t imagine they’d be intact” after an invasion of China.

          The 2nd one is a bit nebulous but doesn’t talk about reunification but about annexation.

          • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            I remember Cuban missile crisis being a threat without any spoken words. Yeah, this would be a straight up declaration for war.

    • Tvkan@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Because the PRC has set this as a red line. The Taiwanese would do it in a heartbeat.

      • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        No, it’s because they claim sovereignty over the whole of China + parts who already are independent from the People’s Republic of China. They are not independent, just the old regime in exile. To them Taiwan is just a province of China just as it is for the PRC

        • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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          10 months ago

          Interestingly China would also be quite upset if Taiwan stopped claiming sovereignty over the mainland. To them that would signal an end to the one China policy. So Taiwan maintaining its claim to the mainland is actually to keep China happy. I don’t think the Taiwan government is under any illusion that they will someday take over the mainland.

          • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            It sounds extremely convoluted that a government considering itself “rightful” (ROC/Taiwan) who fought and lost a war with revolutionaries (PRC/“China”) would continue the claim that led to a war to not piss off the revolutionaries?

            Is this some homebrew theory or do you have a source?

            • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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              10 months ago

              Not some home brew theory. And it is very convoluted, but it’s bascially more “one China” policy word games.

              The Taiwanese president unofficially stated in 1991 they do not claim mainland China, but this was never affirmed by courts and there’s no force of law behind it. They cannot officially do this currently without greatly antagonizing China. China’s view is that Taiwan limiting its borders to include only Taiwan and not all of China, would signal the end of the “one China” policy and be a precursor to Taiwanese independence. If Tawain were to declare different national borders that include only the island itself, then China would view it as a violation of their anti secession law passed in 2005, which threatens military force in retaliation. In China’s view, they are another government still within China and still in civil war, without the authority to re-define national borders.

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Secession_Law

              Continuing to claim mainland China as part of the same country is continuing the current status quo, any deviations from that would be viewed as an attempted separation of “indivisable” China. So the claim to the mainland at this point in history is primarily to not antagonize China and continue the status quo situation.