Better than most places. Accountability in democracy.
China and Latin America suffer from the same lack of accountability, due to indoctrination - rebelling against the so called order of things is anathema, is being selfish instead of thinking about common good which in truth is beneficial only to a few and the magical thinking that some people are better than you because of their birth and so that is why they have authority/money/privilege to get away with murder/ members of exclusive Party elite.
What history? And capitalism and freedom have never lasted more than 200 years so I’m confused.
Edit communism seems to be strong and has lasted close to 100 years
Hey MODs!! Come on, this isn’t semantics, this is a real fucking thing.
The BS “reunify” language is well-known established PRC propaganda terminology, used in order to give ill-informed Western readers and observers the spurious impression that Taiwan was, at some point, part of the PRC.
Which it patently wasn’t.
Please correct the title, unless you happen to be
A. a PRC stooge
or
B. another dumbass foreigner who doesn’t know history
In the past I have agonized (for literary purposes) over whether to describe the Chinese attitude as revanchist (seeking “revenge” against a traditional enemy, think France vs. Germany over Alsace-Lorraine) or irredentist (“redeeming” co-ethnics beyond their borders, think Italy vs. Austria-Hungary). On one hand, Mao seemed not to care about Taiwan until the KMT made it their bastion, which suggests revanchism. On the other hand, we hear a lot about shared ethnicity, which sounds like irredentism. (But the PRC seems not to entertain any such designs upon Singapore, at least not yet.)
No, but Taiwan I think is different. While Singapore has an advantageous geographic location. Taiwan’s is even better. Taiwan has access to the ocean. China wants to control, but also have protection. Without access to the sea, they’re a sitting duck.
I think originally, during Mao’s time, it was indeed a question over ideology. But now it’s portrayed as ideological while being more practical. Taiwan, Japan, Philippines have unfettered access to the ocean and China sits like a landlocked country, forced to play nice with the neighbours.
You can see here, starting from India, China is protected by the mountains. Nobody is going to invade from there. Especially not rival since ancient times, India. That also means China can’t invade either. Stalemate there. Nobody is going to invade from the north. They’d all starve and nobody lives there as well as Russia being an ally. North Korea provides a buffer from US allied South Korea, so defence is a given there, otherwise there’d be US troops at the border of China.
Here is where China is locked in.
Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, South China Sea and Andaman Sea. All these countries have full unfettered access to the oceans to bring trade and military protection. Taiwan is the only place where they might have a chance to have an ocean presence. If they don’t control that and the South China Sea…then they don’t have very much leverage against their neighbours in terms of trade, interests, defence, and military projection. There are vulnerabilities at the border of Vietnam, where it is increasingly US allied. Japan is US allied. Philippines is US allied, though that Duterte guy is kinda…off… Singapore is strategic, but is far away and still has to contend with Malaysia and Indonesia. That’s why the Chinese have promised everything under the sun (in their eyes) to annex the Taiwanese. That ocean access means that China can stand among the US as closer to an equal than ever before. China wants nothing more than PLA military ports in Hualien and Taitung.
It’s perfect too! Nobody’s gonna invade this. Cut off anyone who opposes China. You must get China’s permission to do trade with Asia. China is your Big Brother. China happily helpeth, but easily taketh away too…