What do you expect. It’s foreign policy where the great powers flex. In all truth, there is no governor when it comes to foreign policy. It’s as real as it gets. Look at Ukraine. Putin has been warning since 2008 about NATO expansion. People foolishly ignore him and was shocked when he annex Crimea and now invading Ukraine. Putin and his crew are 19 century minded people…we’d be foolish to think otherwise and Ukraine clearly shows this.
OK, I don’t mean that Taiwanese are not concerned about being invaded. What I meant is the sudden shift from a parliamentary visit (i.e. talking) to threats of war—which are 100% on Beijing here. They had agency to respond differently, and they chose to use this discourse. It’s on them.
A lot of older Taiwanese came from China and still view this country very differently from the youth of whom have only known a separate Taiwan and separate Taiwanese culture without the culture of fear and repression that systematically made any dissenting opinion disappear. Older Taiwanese suffer from survivorship bias.
Your post did not indicate they were friends. It comes across as if you were just drinking with random people you just happened to meet. It wasn’t clear you actually knew them.
Well. It does. If they were random people, my point still stands, because chances are, they as a whole tend to favour blue views because dissent was crushed in their times.
Alrighty.
Not really understanding why having disagreements would cause you to be ‘out’. But you do you.
This is what kills Democracy. People stop talking and trying to understand other’s point of view. Democracy is great when we try to learn all perspectives. It’s reason how Trump was elected…shame. True freedom is bigger than right or wrong…rich or poor.
Because you are making wild aspersions on people im with and their background, with no grounding. It doesnt matter if they were my friends or not.
And also why does it matter what their political background is? The point on Taiwan Twitter is that Taiwanese are not worried about war or not talking about war, when probably, the pool of people they meet is limited.
but you are making aspersions about their political roots.
Well, not really, as im not the one saying ‘nobody’ in Taiwan is talking about it. All the talk shows and stuff are. People are talking about it, at least in the Taiwa n I live in and the people I talk to. If i was going to make such a definitive statement that ‘Taiwanese dont talk about war’ and then chide the international press for getting things wrong, I would at least broaden my research pool.