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© Thomson Reuters 2024.If China wants Taiwan, it should also take back land from Russia, president says
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TaiwanIsNotChina
Maybe it is because the PRC has never experienced democracy that it's supporters don't understand the concept of a plurality.
Oh, so the PRC controls one meaningless word in a document, my mistake.
stormcrow
China doesn’t need Taiwan and Taiwan certainly doesn’t need China.
So what’s the problem?
Live and let live!
quercetum
Lai got less than 30% of the votes in the election. It is the first time this century that there were more votes against the winning candidate.
The Constitution, the law that has legal control over Taiwan, says Taiwan is a province of China for your information.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Like it or not, the CCP has no control over Taiwan and has backed down from trying to take it by force.
quercetum
I don’t interact with the average Russians. Do you? I often interact with Russians and Americans at a club in Kamiyacho. I don’t get the impression you do.
Why change the original scope of the Russian economy to the living standards of the average Russian?
If we talk about the U.S. economy, would I choose the people who live on the streets of San Francisco and say to you, “doesn’t look fine to me?”
Russia does do factories. That’s China. It takes energy to run the factories of the manufacturing base and iron ore to produce steel. Russia has that and its citizens can enjoy trade with China using their own currencies.
Russia is doing fine.
Hercolobus
Like it or not, Taiwan belongs to China.
John
I seem to recall this one using the same terminology in another context.
Holds up about as badly.
TaiwanIsNotChina
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023/index/twn
TaiwanIsNotChina
Still Taiwan looks squeaky clean compared to China and its clapping penguins.
Underworld
quercetum
Doesn’t look fine to the average Russian. I wonder why you overlook that.
deanzaZZR
For those unfamiliar with the DPP attack on rival political parties. Maybe JT will pick up this interesting story.
Ko Wen-je arrested in corruption case
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2024/09/01/2003823078
quercetum
Arresting your political opponent, raiding their home and office, detaining them fir three days on false corruption charges is more like a banana republic than a free independent country.
Why is Lai so afraid of Ko? Ko has the young intellectuals in his camp while Lai has old shopkeepers who sit on plastic stools in front of a busy polluted streets of Taipei.
TaiwanIsNotChina
And all of that dirty as heck. China will never EVER be considered to be doing its part on the climate crisis.
quercetum
Russia has a strong supply of energy with customers from China and India the two most populous countries in the world. Russia also has a customer in EU, another close to half a billion people. They all buy from Russia and at low discount prices. Russia could raise prices as well.
Russia trades with China, the global manufacturing powerhouse, and has a trade surplus not a deficit. Lastly, and I hate to do this, the sanctions that were supposed to collapse Russia have not. How could your government have miscalculated and missed China?
Russia is doing fine.
Looking up the numbers you provided doesn’t tell the whole picture.
TokyoLiving
Say what you want, reunification is inevitable, China will do it in its own time and way..
stormcrow
Yeah! He’s absolutely right!
Underworld
quercetum
Russia is now at its weakest right?" he added.
Inflation = 7.0%
Interest rates = 19%
I don't think so.
TaiwanIsNotChina
If that is the most you can say about the accuracy of my comments, I will take that as a complement. Going to be staring that that free independent Taiwan for the rest of your life, but then as a clueless American, it was never yours either.
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's called, "they are sick of your corrupt uniparty".
Depends whether the piracy by China continues. The Philippines shows no sign of backing down.
Taiwan still independent in all the ways that matter. They will provide the example when the CCP eats itself.
And he should be thankful the Yuan talked loud enough to do so.
Just another way of saying that the average Russian will be staring at Hanzi on their products and wondering what the heck happened to their country.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Like the invasion and annexation of a neighbor? Oh wait, that was scummy China's ally.
You make it sound like you expect us to believe that the PRC is not on the bottom of the world in Press Freedom while Taiwan is not on the top. Is that the narrative?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Why? He has no need to promote your nonsense narrative and piracy.
Tanks moving only one way on Feb. 24, 2022.
quercetum
He talking about Taiwan. You're confusing it with Hong Kong where Cantonese is used but people in both Hong Kong and Taiwan use Mandarin Chinese.
quercetum
They have fared quite well. Hundred of millions lifted out of poverty. The CPC is a model example to follow for poverty alleviation. Here is my opinion and we are in an opinion section.
Tiananmen was one fo the many attempts the US tried to destabilize China. It is along the lines of Xinjiang and Hong Kong and Myanmar as well with Aung San Suu Kyi. It is the US bread and butter play: support terrorists, rioters, protestors, to divide a country and to unseat a government. I understand your view is that China cracked down on peaceful protestors, but I am not sure how you think all these rioters or freedom fighters just sprout out of nowhere without any funding or organizational support.
The US endeavor in Xinjiang has failed to cause a fragment in Western China. The same with Tibet. The young people in Hong Kong are going into Shen Zhen, China like a young American moving to New York to make it big. I can assure you Taiwan is not going to declare independence. They're getting kickbacks to buy weapons but the common denominator among the parties is maintaining the status quo and investing in China because of its labor and vast market. That leaves the Philippines, which is just a road rage or sea rage episode that will not last. Myanmar, possibly. India? No, it is a partner with Russia and getting good deals on Russian oil. The Himalayas is great for Chinese security. The US or the entities in the US has failed again.
In dinner and drinking sessions with general managers and diplomats affiliated with embassies in Toranomon, Kamiyacho, Hiroo and so on, I am in agreement with the opinion of Americans who think that Russia is the way to go to fragment China. China has protected its west, south, east sides along the coast and in the South China Seas as described in the previous paragraph. What is left is the north and the long border China shares with Russia.
If Russia collapses, there will be many states that have no experience with statehood that will easily become a puppet government of the US. You could have a Zelenskyy here and a Marcos there and a little Lai here and there and eventually military bases dotted near the border (The greatest triumph of Mao is ordering the US to remove all military bases and missiles including nuclear missiles from Taiwan and getting the US to do so.) The collapse of Russia will make China quite vulnerable in the north. This is more plausible in provoking China than a coast guard and fishing boats playing bumper boats in the South China Seas.
The only thing is Americans seem to think since the Soviet collapsed, Russia will also eventually collapse, which is wishful thinking. China is not going to facilitate in any way with this. Instead China is and will be helping Russians raise their living standards. When Russian oligarchs trade energy with EU countries, they get a luxurios apartment in London or a Premier League football club or EU bonds. You may see a Maserati in Moscow or a Bugatti. None of these benefit Russians. When Russian oligarcs trade with China, Russians get Chinese consumer products that benefits Russians and raises the standard of living in Russia.
The way to destabilize China will be within China imho or through the north side of China by way of the fall of Russia. It will not be through some Asian small potato like the Philippines or Taiwan or Hong Kong.
John
A. No, it doesn’t. Cantonese is a separate language.
B. Japan uses Kanji. That mean Honshu belongs to Beijing too?
ClippetyClop
Next level coping mechanism. Putin wants this war to take as long as possible. The longer, the better. More dead Russians means more broken NATO weapons.
What happened to you?
ClippetyClop
What a great idea!
The entire English speaking / writing world now belongs to England. We'll take the wealthy parts of Hong Kong back too, thanks.
South America belongs to the Spanish and the Portuguese.
Switzerland is no more.
Imagine being you and thinking this was a smart idea.
elephant200
Those are Manchurian lands, the Russians took it, nothing to do with China. But Taiwan speaks Chinese language and writes in Chinese text that's why it belongs to China !
JRO
More about pride now, can't give up on Taiwan now after saying they will take it back for so long. If it was just about land then they would have a much easier time just taking over parts of Russia, especially now.
Kuribozu
The KMT carried out what came to be called the White Terror. Martial law lasted from 1949 to 1987.
(Bellflower)
Yes, all true. And the brave people of Taiwan have since shamed their oppressors and gained their freedom. They now live in a true democracy with full human rights, civil rights and the rule of law, and are an inspirational example to the world. Now, please tell us the corresponding story of how their brethren on the mainland have fared since, oh, say, June 1989?
John
Because that worked out so well for Hong Kong.
I feel like the CCP propaganda dept should demand their money back for that one.
fallaffel
Yeah, like the Moscow regime would really admit otherwise. If things are so great, why is there mass emigration and brain drain, numerous terrorist attacks, and the need to beg Iran and NK for weapons?
quercetum
Lai has never said this before he became President. He really has become an American coolie 苦力.
quercetum
Russia's economy is doing fine. Putin is taking his time. Get NATO to send more weapons and deplete NATO’s arsenal. The frontline is a meat grinder and for NATO weapons.
quercetum
Lau is not making sense. The puppeteer must be cringing.
China’s possibility of using force would be exactly because of what Lai and his political party says or does. If Taiwan declares independence there’ll be war.
quercetum
Lai and his party just had his rival presidential candidate, the former mayor of Taipei who finished third arrested and detained for some trumped up corruption charges over a real estate deal. The former mayor and candidate Ko maintains his innocence. They tried to get him to confess but let him go due to insufficient evidence. They raided his office and home.
Some vibrant democracy dws.
JJE
This is rank sadism in an amateurish attempt to divide Russia and China from a textbook puppet.
Won't work because Beijing and Moscow understand they both face the most violent, aggressive racketeering cartel in history - NATO.
Ukraine was their last victim and they are actively searching for the next one.
.
isabelle
Thoroughly discredited, as evidenced by the Hong Kong protests, and the hundreds of thousands that have fled Hong Kong for democratic countries like the UK, US, Australia, etc.
A "law" [sic] that is a clear breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration (which, despite CCP lies, runs until 2047), and has destroyed One Country Two Systems.
Hence, the protests before its imposition by Beijing, and the emigration since.
You completely fail to mention China's ongoing claims, such as Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island in its "Standard Map," and simmering resentment over matters such as territory lost in the Treaty of Peking, like Vladivostok/Haishenwai.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/04/china-is-redefining-its-borders-with-its-neighbors-including-russia_6122600_4.html#
https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20230321-territorial-dispute-between-china-and-russia-risks-clouding-friendly-future
And this doesn't change the fact that Taiwan is not Beijing's territory at all.
Wrong. Martial law was lifted in 1987, full elections were held in 1992, and Lee Teng-hui became the first directly elected president in 1996.
lincolnman
The Taiwanese don't think so...
And what was going on in China at that time? I guess you forgot about the "Cultural Revolution" which resulted in the death of over 1 million Chinese...
Indeed - China had to backdown - and was humiliated...
Laughable facetiousness....
Sven Asai
Don't worry, they will one day. Currently a possible time frame opens for that, as Russia and Ukraine weaken themselves drastically each other. If The Russians wouldn't have a significantly outnumbering nuclear arsenal, they would longtime have retaken that lost old area.
Bellflower
The US and Japan have promoted Lai's DPP party for their own purposes.
There was never any freedom in Taiwan throughout the 20th century. Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony until 1945. The US occupation forces handed it over to Chiang Kai Shek, leader of the anti-communist Kuomintang party. The KMT carried out what came to be called the White Terror. Martial law lasted from 1949 to 1987.
The revolutionary Chinese government was blocked from freeing Taiwan by the US Navy which controlled the strait. The US has been grooming the reactionaries on Taiwan for use against China ever since.
The US and Japanese governments do not care about "Taiwan freedom". They care only about using Taiwan as a tool against China.
JJE
And this doesn't change the fact that Beijing observes Taiwan as its territory - lock, stock and barrel.
JJE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Russia_border
lincolnman
That one sure ticks off all the approved CCP fairy tale phrases..."puppet", "lapdog", etc....
But we all see it as just the usual CCP weak bluster and bombast...
And as to Russia and China territorial disputes, this poster either forgets or ignores history...
https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-the-sino-soviet-border-dispute/
Bellflower
Taiwan President Lai talks like a US puppet: "the rules-based international order".
That of course is a US propaganda phrase, the rules the US sets for everyone else and itself ignores and violates all the time.
Attempting to pit China against Russia has always been US policy and it just makes Lai sound ridiculous to be lecturing China. The use of territorial issues for anti-China political stunts is now very fashionable now among all the US lapdogs.
deanzaZZR
LOL. Spoken as one who has never visited Taiwan which is cringe ironic given TINC
JJE
He should tell everyone about his 11-dash line and his water cannons.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Territory gained from Russia would not allow China to close off international waters.
TaiwanIsNotChina
More recognition than Russia's disgraces.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Isn't that funny how Peking can make territorial adjustments with Russia but not with the Philippines.
JJE
What a scummy statement and deliberately misleading.
He completely fails to mention Russia Federation and PRC demarcated the borders in 2004 - was ratified by both sides the following year.
Beijing has never ratified non-UN recognized Taipei.
TaiwanIsNotChina
A law that eliminated all freedom of speech due to the dictatorial nature of the PRC.
You tell us there will be no war, though, so you rule it out completely. I guess we should not listen to your pronouncements.
That's why the US needs to be navigating the Taiwan straight and Second Thomas Shoal regularly, to prove that no drama from the PRC is being acknowledged.
quercetum
This guy, Lai, is not very smart. China does not want to invade Taiwan for territorial reasons. He jumps to a conclusion without providing any reason.
In his mind there are only two reasons and there can only be two reasons 1) territory 2) hegemony in the international area. So if it’s not 1) then it must be 2). This is not necessary true.
China wants to rule Taiwan for sovereignty over the Chinese neither 1) territory gain or 2) hegemony.
Lai’s lousy logic: China is seeking hegemony that’s why it is not going after territory lost to Russia.
If China is after hegemony, wouldn’t China go after the territory lost to Russia to achieve hegemony?
M3M3M3
Many of my friends in Japan are Taiwanese who moved here precisely because they don't want to fight to the death.
Some are admittedly concerned about how their life might change under PRC rule, but they aren't stupid enough to sacrifice their own lives to stop it. Especially when they, and most young educated Taiwanese, can easily move to Japan, Australia, the US etc.
quercetum
Not true, Hong Kong has their own system of laws. They, Hong Kong, introduced a national security law, a law that exists on all of our countries.
quercetum
As we can see, the Taiwanese President is weak in logic.
China has already settled with Russia regarding that.
My Russian diplomat friend in Tokyo told me there are currently over 40,000 active petitioned cases of territorial disputes between China and Russia - a hill there, a river bend there.
China and Taiwan’s dispute is not over territory but sovereignty as in a civil war over sovereignty to rule. The war is almost finished and both sides suffered. China has decided the remaining part of the war should be settled peacefully through reunification, but has not ruled out the use of force completely.
What the West’s selective hearing hears us only the last sentence: China is going to invade Taiwan!
Drama queens.
M3M3M3
It's obviously a silly question meant as rhetorical red meat, ... but in case someone is actually interested in the answer, it's because the Treaty of Aigun is no longer the relevant legal instrument defining the borders of Russia and the PRC. For decades the PRC engaged the Soviet Union and later Russia to resolve all exisiting territorial disputes, and they have signed multiple additional treaties that define the borders.
deanzaZZR
Hong Kong is so not free that anyone can fly into HK at anytime and talk to anyone there. China is better and more whole with the recovery of Macau and Hong Kong. Taiwan's recovery will bump it up another big notch.
TaiwanIsNotChina
He says while claiming China is pro-peace. Here is a pro-tip: you won't be doing any rejuvenation of Taiwan without some major loss of life from the mainland.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The example is glaring that Hong Kong no longer exists as a free territory. Taiwanese will fight to the death to prevent a similar fate.
Yubaru
Sarcasm runs deep in this one!
Peter14
A fair comment. China picks and chooses who to terrorize to get what Xi wants.
fallaffel
I guess this is sarcasm? There is no "two systems" anymore. Why would Taiwan trust China after seeing what happened to HK?
lincolnman
Well spoken President Lai...
Instead of ketchup like their BFF, I bet there's soy sauce and vodka on the walls at Xi and Putin's dachas...
John
Never ruled by the CCP. It’s a democracy that doesn’t want to live under a corrupt dictatorship.
Oh, and armed to the teeth.
So, no. Condolences.
deanzaZZR
What is this charlatan even babbling about? At least he admits that he is knowledgeable about modern Chinese history which should surprise no one as he speaks and reads Chinese.
Many historic wrongs have been put right. That is something for Chinese everywhere to celebrate. The island of Taiwan is the next piece in the rejuvenation project.
John
Ooooh the dreaded consistency fail by the CCP!
Daniel Neagari
YES!!!... exactly!!!
isabelle
Good to hear this actually voiced by such a high-profile figure. Lai speaks the plain truth, as always.
Not quite, but Putin is ensuring it will quickly get there, and I'm sure China will stab Russia in the back just as soon as it's ready. Just as Stalin was played by Hitler after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Putin will be played by Xi after their "No limits" partnership.
However, the difference now is that once this new Sino-Soviet (Russian) Split occurs, China will not be welcomed by the free world like it was last time.