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?
Cool, that sounds like a great reason why maintaining the status quo is a good idea. We should probably listen to the majority, who wisely consider the actual ramifications of these options instead of fools who only care about hypotheticals.
Sure, whatever, I don’t care if he was or not. You’ve completely failed to establish any relevance to this line of questioning so I don’t give a shit either way. I’ve entertained you on it longer than I should have already.
Did I say otherwise?
My point was that realities were having an impact.
Yes, you said otherwise when you excluded their responses.
No, I didn’t. Me giving an opinion on the results of a poll (or many polls, to be clear) is not saying that Taiwan should just declare independence.
When your “opinion” on a poll involves throwing out 96% of respondents because they didn’t say that Taiwan should just declare independence, yeah it kinda is.
I have no idea where on earth you picked up this idea that you can just exclude whatever data you don’t like and call it an “opinion” or an “interpretation.” I guess those are just your “alternate facts,” huh?
No, it’s not. I am me, you are not. I decide what I think. You do not. I give you my opinion on the realities that likely frame how Taiwanese people are answering these polls. That’s not me saying that Taiwan should officially declare independence as soon as possible.
I am not “excluding data” in the first place. I am just giving you my observations on it.
Yes, that was in a direct comparison between pro-independence and pro-unification votes.
I still maintain my position on the polling itself: More people clearly support eventual independence as compared to unification by current polling, and the current setup is de-facto independence already. Moreover, most people in Taiwan by the same polls self-identify as Taiwanese. China also very much implies, if not threatens a war if they try to go independent officially - that’s likely to temper many responses.
I can make these observations without also saying that Taiwan should declare independence officially as soon as possible.
I don’t see any reason to continue this when you literally just throw out any facts that you don’t like, completely arbitrarily. You are clearly a chauvinist.