by Bill » 04 May 2021, 2:13 pm
straightshooter wrote:Most comments seem to possess only a slight grasp of history mixed with a generous contribution of propaganda regarding Taiwan.
How far do we go back?
Let's go back to the early 30's where the Chinese nationals were lead by Chiang Kai-shek. They had to deal with a Japanese invasion and troublesome communist groups who also claimed to have fought the Japanese. The nationals were supported to a modest extent by the US.
After the withdrawal and then the capitulation of the Japanese the conflict continued between the growing communists and the nationals who continued to be supported by the US (ha ha). The nationals gradually lost ground until the only remaining territory they could safely defend was Taiwan.
So in a nutshell, Taiwan contains the legitimate remnants of the earlier Chinese National Government and continues to be a 'stye in the eye' of the communist government of mainland China.
I suspect that in the end the US will defend Taiwan with as much 'blood and treasure' as they did the nationals in the mainland unless the US needs a 'casus belli.'
Most of what you wrote is correct but you left out that Japan controlled Taiwan from 1895 to 1947. Under the Japanese the Taiwanese enjoyed substantial improvements to their health, education and farming practices over this period and the structures left in place by the Japanase after WW2 allowed the economy to later modernize well before the PRC. The 4 factions on the Island only unifed well after the USA led UN security council ditched the ROC and gave the People Republic of China their seat.
I was planning on doing a Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo trip last year but that got canned with Covid. In my way of thinking the people of modern Taiwan are a mix of Indigenous/Han/Chinese refugees(ROC) and Japanese. They have forged their own democratic destiny and deserve sovereignty.
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