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Chinese soldiers pledge to sacrifice their lives in documentary on Taiwan invasion
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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LOL, "expansionism". Like what NATO does? Or do you mean the reintegration of formerly centrally administered provinces after imperialist interventionism that occupied, divided, and oppressed? Because lest you forget, all the people on Taiwan, except for the very small number of natives who survived the genocidal KMT, they're all part of China. They seceded and the Europeans protected them, not because they had a right to seceded, but because Europe wanted to maintain military and economic dominance over the region. Taiwan is a proxy in this case. Reintegrating the proxy is not expansionism.
Expansionism is 600 military bases around the world. Expansionism is establishing Ukraine as a new proxy and attempting to install net new nuclear capabilities on its border with Russia. Expansionism is literally what China has been fighting against for centuries. And now, because they want to continue pushing out European interests from their corner of the world, you're crying "expansionism"! It's ridiculous. Was it expansionism when Hong Kong was returned to China from the British? Was it expansionism when the British could no longer have complete immunity from Chinese law in Shanghai? Was it expansionism when the North Koreans tried to push out the Japanese from the peninsula?
Europe has been expanding for 600 years and you're going to cry foul when someone tries to push out European interests from where they never should have been in the first place?
The problem, of course, is that you've come wading into an argument with absolutely no evidence. Here are the actual opinions of the citizens of the Republic of China:
As you can see, the most popular options are "Decide later" and "Decide never". "Independence now!" as a choice has never quite beaten "No response".
Nor is that really surprising - independence as a political project only appeared in the mainstream in any capacity with the founding of the DPP (Democratic Prograssive Party) in 1986. For the first 37 years, the island was controlled exclusively by the KMT (Kuomintang) as a one-party military dictatorship that not only considered itself part of China, but the rightful rulers of the whole of China! Here's the insignia of the RoC Marine Corps, showing the full extent of the territories claimed by the Republic of China:
As you can see, it not only includes the mainland but large areas of several neighbouring states including almost the whole of Mongolia. The KMT old guard, as much as remain in politics anyway, are actually furious about the idea of claiming independence, because it would mean renouncing the whole rest of China!
Firstly, there is only a question of 'unify or declare independence' because of continuous pressure from the US Empire for the last half century. Continuing the status quo benefits all parties because the RoC's largest trading partner is the PRC (obviously, because it's a country of 1.8 billion people that is literally right offshore) and gradually increasing integration was the obvious natural course.
Until the US, which still maintains an official One-China policy, decided it needed another way to attack China. But maybe, China really might just smash its way in by force... any day now!
If events had unfolded based on normal political and economic trends, Taipei would probably have ended up as an autonomous province under the PRC, similar to Hong Kong or Macau, because the Chinese central government is comparatively hands-off and local governments are mostly allowed to do their own thing - a policy started under Mao called (I love Chinese policy names) Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let One Hundred Schools of Thought Contend.
Oh, but of course you thought the entire Chinese population was controlled directly by Xi Jinping like units in an RTS, didn't you? Because you're a know-nothing racist fuckwit - or not, after all, it's okay to say that asian people are yellow-skinned and beady-eyed if they're enemies of the US! Xi is going to finish his third term, see out the opening stages of the Belt and Road Initiative, then retire like every other Chinese President and foreigners with full bellies and too much time on their hands will cope and seethe that the next one is also a horrible dictator (until that one retires too).
Firstly,
You're an ignorant westerner whose entire knowledge consists of fifteen seconds a day of headlines drip-fed by your state-controlled media, and the link you sling at me is from fucking Wikipedia.
In short: you are wrong. The Empire's media lies. The '1 million' number is based on eight (8) interviews conducted by virulent German christofascist shitstain Adrian Zenz.
Here's a vlog by a guy who actually went to Xinjiang and talked to people there. Plenty of other videos on his channel too.
The program in question, which took place in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was a deradicalization campaign against islamic extremists funded by the west, who had been committing multiple terror attacks every year. People taken in were given education and warned about the dangers of Islamic extremism, especially the (foreign to Xinjiang) Wahabbi form of Islam exported by Saudi Arabia with the help of the US. Who, by the way, deradicalizes Uyghurs by blowing them up. After conducting the most humane and effective deradicalization program ever, the western backed extremists are gone and even western media has to grudgingly admit the whole thing is over (in the most loaded language possible):
The Maoist uprising against the landlords was the most successful proletarian revolution ever, and resulted in near-totally equal distribution of land among the peasantry. Life expectancy under Mao increased at a rate of more than one year per year, to double from around thirty to over sixty. It is the most rapid sustained increase in life expectancy anywhere, ever. China's two thousand year food problem was solved.
Luckily your totally unbiased and free press can report such improvements in an impartial manner.
Dare you read anything I've linked? Can you get past your unearned smug arrogance? Or is the parasite attached to your forebrain just too strong?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=hj9oynrrkcA
https://piped.video/watch?v=9RK5Me8maG4
https://piped.video/watch?v=6XNskWbzGEE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
If you actually had any love for the people of China, you'd respect their political autonomy and drop this paternal white savior act.