Somewhat reddit-brained lib friend of mine sent this article which triggered a whole discussion of geopolitics: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/tsmcs-euv-machines-are-equipped-with-a-remote-self-destruct-in-case-of-an-invasion
He said that would reduce the chance of an invasion and I was like (paraphrasing): "really? does it? the generations-long and unfinished business of the chinese civil war and all the history there is outweighed by the thought of losing one chip fab that they've already proven they don't really need after all the sanctions? They aren't going to invade unless their hand is forced, there's literally already US troops on taiwan-held islands, if they were on the brink of invading they would have done it already, but they aren't."
He basically argued that the majority of people there wanted to be independent therefore its simple self determination and the US should help them, etc.
I said the no capitalist state gives a flying fuck about self determination and asked if texas has the right to secede, or perhaps more relevantly, if texas settlers had the right to secede from mexico and join the US in the first place? because its not like the nationalists that took over the island were its native inhabitants, who are now mostly dead, flooding a low-population place with "settlers" doesn't mean you own it...
we went back and forth a bunch and he stopped arguing when I pointed out the inconsistency of supporting palestine but also taiwan, when they (while not the same, taiwan wasn't settler colonialism) have kind of a similar arc, what with israel's "majority", both having invaded and largely displacing the prior inhabitants.
I don't feel I had all the best arguments at my disposal, though overall I feel good about my responses.
I've never met anyone who could articulate a historical basis for Taiwan's independence from mainland China. It's not even how residents or politicians of either part of China think of Taiwan. Besides 5-10,% of the island who got side-tracked and ingested brain fatal doses of CNN or BBC and like 1,% of the mainland, nobody really disagrees that there is only one China, and you could kind of say they disagree about who governs the whole of it...
No one besides the most propagandized people on Earth think they care even a bit about Taiwan. Of course the propaganda is just pushing for an untenable situation requiring more weapons sales to ROC, because of the lack of historical basis or popular consent in either involved country.
Does the RoC still claim it owns Mongolia? If Libs were capable of consistency it'd be funny to see them try to work their way around that one. "There is only one Republic of China and I fully support the Republic of China's stated goal of invading Mongolia and forcibly re-integrating it in to the Chinese mainland" and then just watch their brain cell fizz.
Libs are also completely unaware of the 11 dash line
Oh no i am a lib! I don't know the term, either