They are doing impressive projects, not gonna lie, but the whole “class struggle” spiel has been over for some time now

The current status quo framework is based on the civil war claims, even the slightest deviation from this framework is seen as a red line by the PRC, to the degree that Chen Shui-bian was seen as a diehard independence figure for simply using Taiwan instead of ROC in national day addresses.

Looking at practical implications, where Taiwan hopes to maintain a status quo until the PRC’s window of opportunity for annexation fades away, why would Taiwan say “yeah we don’t claim the ROC territory, we claim exactly the territories of today’s PRC”, thereby strengthening the PRCs argument for annexing Taiwan?

What you’re looking for was tried by the progressive administrations following democratisation, but faced opposition in the Legislative Yuan, mainly from the opposition KMT party, including rewording of “paying reparations” to “paying compensations” to the victims

It’s absurd to claim Taiwan today is moulded by the White Terror era, or that the administration or political entities have fascist policies.

Again, if we look at the framework of fascism, the PRC is much closer to a fascist definition than Taiwan

The main argument of the PRC is there is one China, the ROC was the government of that China, the PRC succeeded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of all Chinese territory in 1949. Taiwan was part of the Japanese empire (sovereignty given to Japan by Qing China) for the entirety of the ROC’s lifetime in China, the ROC given administrative rights to Taiwan at the Treaty of San Francisco.

Taiwan giving up those de-jure territorial claims implies Taiwan is a separate entity, the civil war framework dissolves, since there’s no longer a competing government claiming to represent China, just two separate countries, and the succession of states logic breaks.

The moment Taiwan says “we don’t claim the mainland anymore, we just claim Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, …,” it’s a de facto independence declaration.

This is seen by the PRC as sedition and, again, by law, the PRC must intervene militarily to prevent that.

This de-jure claim is based on a constitution written in 1947 by an irredentist fascist that occupied Taiwan and placed it under martial law, against the will of it’s people. As I said in other comments, any attempts made by Taiwan since democratisation to move away from that constitution are seen as seditious, and, by PRC law, must be intervened with militarily.

don’t have institutional purges in the state apparatus and economic powers

What?

If we’re talking fascism in terms of: belief in the need for a national rebirth (振興中華明民族), militarism, authoritarianism, political purges, the PRC scores much closer to a inter-war fascist European state. Talk to any Chinese and ask them what they think the state’s view on “class struggle” is today.

If I state a nation claims territories, I tend to prioritise first hand sources from the nation in question, rather than second-hand, crowdsourced statements. After a quick translation:

The Republic of China was established in 1912, becoming Asia’s first democratic republic. On December 7, 1949, the government of the Republic of China relocated to Taiwan, administering the main island of Taiwan and its affiliated islands, the Penghu Islands, the Kinmen Islands, the Matsu Islands, the Dongsha Islands, the Zhongsha Islands, and the Nansha Islands. The total area under its effective jurisdiction is 36,197.3371 square kilometers.

I’m sure China is a Marxist-Leninist utopia (lmao people actually believe this)

It’s from a constitution written by a warmonger that called himself Generalissimo, in 1947, and imposed the longest (at the time) martial law. Since Taiwan’s democratisation, any move to change even minor parts of the constitution are seen by China as reason for military intervention. The only way the PRC has claim to Taiwan is through a “succession of states”, and that’s why preventing Taiwan from rewriting a constitution written by a coloniser (the Republic of China) is important to them

Taiwan does not claim Mainland China (source: Executive Yuan - Territory)

From friends that are thinking or have recently emigrated, stagnant economy and no future prospects for young people, masters degree holders lining up hoping for tobacco packing jobs in Henan.

Talked to a couple Zoomer guys on XHS from Guizhou and they said theyre considering joining the army cause there’s not much other work for them.

Thanks for the insightful response, as with most things, there’s nuance missing from the conversation

Aren’t contrails like, really bad for climate? And it would be really easy to divert some routes to shave off a significant part of contrail-caused warming?

Don’t be sorry for Andrew Tate coming here, femicide and sex trafficking (often of minors, often by their own families) is a big issue and probably why Tate decided to come here.

Besides the point, I get your idea, and I think western media has a direct interest in painting China in a bad light, it’s an ideology war: the post-Thatcher, post-Reagan small state, deregulation by all means, vs a state capitalist model that is starting to have big soft power around the world.

I do think China engages in the same kind of game, but because most of the world doesn’t speak Mandarin yet, this isn’t as broadly seen. I think of the yearly “Reports on Human Rights abuses in the US” by Xinhua, or the aunties going “美國完蛋了” endlessly on their Kuaishou pages lol

No I don’t think I do. My bad

Bro no one cares about Romania because we’re not worthy of anyone’s attention, genuinely, we’re like a tiny speck of dust in the global economy or geopolitics, don’t give me this “manufacture consent” talk.

I do think that China gets portrayed unfairly negatively in western media sometime, but look at our society that thinks Nazis were cool because the Hitler or Mussolini edit some 14 yo did on Tiktok. People need reminders of the horrors of the past, not just the rosey state approved calls to a “period of former glory”

Both Putin and Trump (through his ideologists) are diametrically opposed to European liberalism

Because “muh EU holding citizens of member states as hostages to WOKE”

I mean… the EU itself is doing half their job by using all their political capital on inane shit like Chat Control, instead of using all available political capital for federalisation and strengthening ties with China

Every year before the Christmas holidays, Romanian TV channels show many images, videos and testimonies from the Romanian revolution, where the military fired into, and killed many civilians. We’re not afraid to grapple with our history, even 36 years later.