Several Taiwanese technology companies are helping Huawei Technologies Co. build infrastructure for an under-the-radar network of chip plants across southern China, an unusual collaboration that risks inflaming sentiment on a democratic island grappling with Beijing’s growing belligerence.
This is a straight-up national security issue for Taiwan. Its chip factories are an integral part of its defence strategy and it needs to be able to use them as leverage to survive.
In which case Taiwan Province should refuse American demands to build chip factories in the US. If Taiwan’s strategic value comes from microchips then the US not having it’s own domestic supply prevents the US from walking away.
On the other hand, reunification has been a core interest for China since long before microchips were even a thing. You could Thanos snap all the chip foundries away tomorrow and the Chinese interest in reunification would not substantially diminish.
Taiwan’s (the Republic of China’s) alliance with the United States and general defence strategy has a few key factors:
Exactly my point. The interest of Taiwan Province is to have the critical mass of such manufacturing stay in the RoC, whereas the interest of the US is to have the critical mass of such manufacturing move to the US. Given these divergent strategic interests, it is the best interest of the RoC to sell chips to the US instead of allowing the US to make its own chips. The US doesn’t have a supply alternative to TSMC yet, so exporting RoC tech and factories to the US is weakening the RoC position and creating their own competitor (assuming the US doesn’t fuck up its own factories).
I would like to remind you that there does not exist any political entity called “Taiwan Province”. The Republic of China abolished its provincial governments and the People’s Republic of China doesn’t even bother to maintain a shadow government.
I refer you to ISO 3166-2:TW where the territory in question is designated “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Taiwan (Province of China)”. I do take the liberty of shortening out the “of China” but I am happy to refer to the territory by its full name if you will agree to do the same.
If you have any issues with the designation, I encourage you to take it up with the International Standards Organization.
I will cut to the chase here and say that the only reason for calling it “Taiwan Province” is if you are (1) a Chinese nationalist, (2) a Chinese propagandist, or (3) a person who got absorbed by (2). Nobody else in ordinary English discourse will refer to it as such. The typical usage is to call the Republic of China “Taiwan”. Its government calls itself the “Republic of China (Taiwan)”. Normal people call it “Taiwan”. Taiwanese people call it “Taiwan”. Don’t forget; the “free area” of the Republic of China has two nominal provinces—Taiwan and Fuchien.
ISO standards are dry and mechanical, and most importantly, not designed to supplant everyday usage by humans. That is unless you also tend to write the date as 2023-10-03 and not the far more common “3 October 2023” or “October 3, 2023”. The ISO standard refers to Taiwan Province, which is a province of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, however, neither province has a government and neither makes decisions on its own.
The common name for the area controlled by the Republic of China is “Taiwan”. “Taiwan Province” is a Chinese nationalist dog whistle and there is nothing you can say to get around this fact.
I will cut to the chase here and say that the only reason for not calling it “Taiwan Province” is if you are (1) an American Imperialist, (2) a Japanese Imperialist, or (3) a running dog of one or both types of imperialist.
It doesn’t matter to me what “normal people” call Taiwan Province because the vast majority of what you consider normal people are completely ignorant of the topic, the history, and the legal political situation.
You don’t get a say in what terminology I choose to use. Your insistence on prescribing what exact terminology I can and cannot use dances on the border of pointless liberal semantic nitpicking and petty fascist power play.
No amount of semantic maneuvering on your part will change the fact that Taiwan, Province of China is recognized by international law and the vast majority of the countries of the world as being a part of China. No amount of quibbling over words or pidgeom holing me into your imaginary categories will change the fact that the vast majority of countries and international law recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate governmemt of China.
I hope you realise that countries recognise the People’s Republic of China because it’s politically expedient. It’s lip service since the PRC government is easily offended. So for many countries, it’s easier to just play along, shut up, and let’s get to negotiating some lucrative trade deals instead. Public support among Western nations and their allies for Taiwan’s continued autonomous existence remains high despite their governments recognising it as a province of China. You don’t seem to understand how useful doublespeak is in international geopolitics. To pretend countries say what they mean and mean what they say is incredibly naïve.
Your behaviour is exactly why I filtered out Hexbear in my feed. There don’t seem to be any actual socialists on Hexbear, just people knee-jerkingly defending any country that claims to be socialist without any regard to whether they practice what they preach. Social democracies like the Nordic countries are way closer to socialism than modern China is, but all you have to do is point your finger and say “liberal” and Hexbear users start foaming at the mouth. I say this as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a socialist.
This conversation has reached its productive end.
My dude, the entire ROC military is completely controlled by the KMT. Yeah, a military that’s institutionally controlled by the status quo party is going to fight to the last man while Tsai Ing-wen and William Lai take the first flight to Japan. The government might have transitioned away from a KMT military dictatorship during the 90s, but the actual military hasn’t moved away from its KMT military dictatorship roots, especially the top brass. Taiwanese separatists have a reputation for dodging conscription, so in the end, you have a top brass that’s still nostalgic about the Chiang Ching-kuo days and a bunch of enlisted and conscripted soldiers who don’t care a whole lot about Taiwanese separatism. There’s a reason why the DPP has continuously and successfully run on “the KMT will sell out Taiwan to the CPC” in order to win seats, most recently in the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election.
There’s a decent chance there won’t be an invasion anyways because the KMT cut a backroom deal with the CPC.
Except… It’s really not? Taiwan’s chip factories are simply leverage to drag the West into any potential conflict between the PRC and ROC. Taiwan’s defence strategy involves being an island in the ocean built up of mountains, jungle, and cities (all terrain where the defender is extremely favoured), mandatory military service for citizens, and being so economically/culturally tied to the mainland that it’s infeasible to break off relations. Taiwan is basically seeking reunification without explicitly seeking reunification: their core defensive strategy relies on being as close to China as possible while being too painful to actually invade.
Of course, this kind of policy didn’t help Cuba, but…
I don’t understand the comparison to Cuba, do you mind explaining?
Cuba ended up getting blockaded because they were too hard to invade lol
Sorry, “quarantined”
Because a blockade would be a declaration of war