For those of us, unfortunately, in the imperial core, what steps should we take to stop a US war with China over Taiwan? I’ve honestly been pretty scared since the war in Ukraine started knowing that China is next. We must avoid this at all costs to save the thousands of Chinese lives that will be sacrificed by the west in their bid to reestablish a unipolar world.

While I’m not discounting the achievements of the anti-war movement in support of Vietnam, the war still waged on for years. The same with Iraq. What should be done differently?

  • diegeticscream[all]🔻@lemmygrad.ml
    62·
    1 year ago

    Taiwan: the people of Taiwan don’t want China there and China shouldn’t invade.

    Not to link dump below, but I think the history of the civil war and specifically the White Terror give necessary context. China (as the ROC) already invaded Taiwan.

    “The KMT lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan in 1949. However, Chiang Kai-shek intended to eventually return to mainland China and retake control of it. In order to do this, the KMT attempted to “sinicize” the Taiwanese people.[19][20][21][22] KMT’s Taiwan Garrison Commander Chen Yi stated that after 50 years of Japanese rule, “Taiwanese customs, thought, and language would have to gradually return to that of the Chinese people”.[23] The KMT believed that a centrally controlled curriculum would forge a unified national sentiment in Taiwan. They also believed education would help build a martial spirit and stimulate enough military, economic, political, and cultural strength not only to survive, but also to recover the mainland.[24]”.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_people

    40 years of martial law and something like 20,000 executions were enacted in order to build the public opinion they have now.

    Please note that I agree with your main point (China should not militarily invade Taiwan), but I do support China’s stated goal of peaceful reunification

    • odium@programming.dev
      41·
      1 year ago

      I believe that regardless of what happened in the past, the only thing that matters is what current Taiwanese people want.

      • diegeticscream[all]🔻@lemmygrad.ml
        7·
        1 year ago

        The White Terror ended in 1987, and involved the genocide of the native peoples of Formosa.

        It doesn’t seem honest to refer to “public opinion” while ignoring the events that shaped that opinion.

      • pancake@lemmygrad.ml
        6·
        1 year ago

        Events are not isolated in time; past events make future events possible, while future events are determined by the past. If you condemn the events leading to the status quo, then it’s necessarily the case that you should not take the status quo as any sort of ethical baseline. That is, the current inhabitants of the island must not be exposed to war, and they will obviously decide their fate with their actions, but I don’t find a reason to believe that their government deserves any special status regarding the island.

        • severien@lemmy.world
          12·
          1 year ago

          If you condemn the events leading to the status quo, then it’s necessarily the case that you should not take the status quo as any sort of ethical baseline.

          That’s quite impractical since all nations and their borders were established as a result of unethical conquest. This can be used as a justification for an unending cycle of violence.

          • pancake@lemmygrad.ml
            2·
            1 year ago

            Exactly. Every change to the world order has people in favor and against, and can have a multitude of effects deep into the future. If one carefully considers them, one can subjectively label some change as good, some as bad, a few violence justified, most condemnable. But setting some arbitrary point in history as the stop point is unsound from a justice standpoint.