Everybody knows about the backstory, there was a civil war, KMT fled to Taiwan creating two Chinas sort of, maybe, neither recognises the other, whole thing. ROC (Taiwan) ended up transitioning from military rule to a multi-party democracy, while the PRC (mainland China) didn’t do that (they did reform economically, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and all that, but still a one-party state, not a multi-party democracy). The status quo right now is that Taiwan is in the grey area of statehood where they function pretty much independently but aren’t properly recognised, and both sides of the strait are feeling pretty tense right now.
Taiwan’s stance on the issue is that they would like to remain politically and economically independent of mainland China, retaining their multi-party democracy, political connections to its allies, economic trade connections, etc. Also, a majority of the people in Taiwan do not support reunification with China.
China’s stance on the issue is that Taiwan should be reunified with the mainland at all costs, ideally peacefully, but war is not ruled out. They argue that Taiwan was unfairly separated from the mainland by imperial powers in their “century of humiliation”. Strategically, taking Taiwan would be beneficial to China as they would have better control of the sea.
Is it even possible for both sides to agree to a peaceful solution? Personally, I can only see two ways this could go about that has the consent of both parties. One, a reformist leader takes power in the mainland and gives up on Taiwan, and the two exist as separate independent nations. Or two, the mainland gets a super-reformist leader that transitions the mainland to a multi-party democracy, and maybe then reunification could be on the table, with Taiwan keeping an autonomous status given the large cultural difference (similar to Hong Kong or Macau’s current status). Both options are, unfortunately, very unlikely to occur in the near future.
A third option (?) would be a pseudo-unification, where Taiwan becomes a recognised country, but there can be free movement of people between the mainland and Taiwan, free trade, that sort of stuff (sort of like the EU? Maybe?). Not sure if the PRC would accept that.
What are your thoughts on a peaceful solution to the crisis that both sides could agree on?
edit: Damn there are crazies in both ends of the arguments. I really don’t think giving Taiwan nukes would help solve the problem.
I think the current best solution, looking at the more reasonable and realistic comments, seems to be to maintain the status quo, at least until both sides of the strait are able to come into some sort of agreement (which seems to be worlds away right now given their current very opposing stances on the issue)
The original post of mine that you replied to was where I said this to someone else:
“So you think the only reason that Taiwan has not merged into the PRC is because the USA forbids it?”
You replied that US propping up the dictatorship was the reason they haven’t merged at a time in the past is technically true, but not really relevant as it was still the dictatorship calling the shots there, and at any point could’ve surrendered - but chose not to. It was more the USA as a powerful global force offering support to the regime to protect them against the PRC, and then further supporting them economically to maintain attitudes to continued separation and independence. And certainly now, certainly in this time period - if Taiwan were to just fold and ask to be annexed into the PRC, there really is nothing the USA could do about it.
Please read my replies you clearly don’t understand them.
Already did.
Clearly not
Yes, I did. I disagree with your historical framing in some ways - but that’s besides the point because the Taiwanese people do not want to join China now.
No it is the point. The history is why things are how they are.
And it’s also true that if the Taiwanese now all, or enough of them, decided to join the PRC - the USA could not stop them.
That’s irrelevant. The conditions that led people on the island to hate the mainland are largely manufactured by the US. The reason why the status quo exists is the US. Why is it so hard for you to understand this?
I disagree. It was the root of my point on this. The USA now is not able to stop and thus can’t be said to be actively preventing Taiwan from joining the PRC. I also dispute that ‘the conditions’ could be simplified down to “The USA forcing Taiwan to do things” given the Taiwanese government initially actively sought out US support in the first place.
USA providing support over many years that help improve their infrastructure and boost their economy etc is “manufactured”? Does that mean that any uptake in opinions towards China over many of their foreign initiatives could be equally said to be “manufactured”?
This is true in so much that the USA helped defend the island initially, but they didn’t force Taiwan to do anything in relation to that.