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this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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B-b-b-b-b-but China might, possibly, at some point in the future, try to reclaim Taiwan! Both sides! Two things true at once! Me speculating about something possibly happening is the exact same as the thing actually happening!
Also Taiwan is a staging ground for a US invasion, claims sovereignty over China, has it's airspace go far over mainland China, and so much more. Somehow China not being a fan of this is the same as when the United States coups another country because it elected someone that doesn't align 100% with us policy.
Is it possible for more than two things being true at once? Is it in fact possible that reducing everything to "both sides bad" isn't some supreme insight, but instead just a mantra that allows libs to support the status quo of us imperialism?
Scientists recently managed to get three things to be true at once, but it only lasted for a couple seconds. It may be possible for as many as four, even five things to be true at the same time, but that's purely theoretical at this point.
Incredible
Okay this one is perfect.
Hasn't China stated that they intend to reclaim Taiwan? Don't they claim Taiwan as part of their country right now?
Yes, as they have since the war, just as Taiwan claims China. Your point?
Peace with Taiwan has been maintained for nearly a hundred years, with a mutual understanding that nobody would try to force the issue too hard. In recent years, the US has been recklessly deviating from that understanding and now people treat the status quo as "Chinese aggression," because of propaganda.
Taiwan isn't claiming the mainland anymore since the 90s
Source? It's in their constitution.
The power of just saying shit
There is no "claim" to be made and there is no "reclaim" to be had against such a claim.
Taiwan is and always has been recognized as part of the country of China. That's why the losing army in the civil war went there - because it was part of the country they were a party of.
China has stated for 70 years that the island province of Taiwan will be integrated into the rest of the governance of the country. For 50 years it has explicitly stated it will be integrated peacefully, because the CPC recognizes that doing it forcefully would actually be contradictory and create a constant guerilla warfare situation as well as invite the world's militaries to intervene. The CPC has no intention of forcing Taiwan to integrate except if Taiwan works with foreign governments to establish a substantial and real threat to the security of the mainland.
If China waits long enough, the Western economies will collapse and Taiwan will very quickly and easily realize that the West just can't support them anymore and when they look to see who they depend on for nearly everything, and who their relatives are and who their dominant trading partner and who can protect them militarily, it's going to be an easy process of integrating the provincial government of Taiwan into the government of the mainland - especially since the CPC is committed to One Country Two System meaning the provincial government of Taiwan can continue operating with the same structure and same politicians and same processes as it has now.
Is that integration supposed to be a good thing?
Yes. Integration means less conflict, more collaboration, less redundancy, more dynamism, less wasteful military build up, fewer threats from the US.
One country two systems means that China provides for national defense of the entire space while Taiwan maintains a substantial amount of governing autonomy.
Think of it like Greenland choosing to be a part of Denmark to keep itself safe from the US military, except in this example Greenland would be historically part of Denmark for centuries and have a population of 99% Danes and have some parts of Greenland only 4 miles off the coast of Denmark with US troops already stationed on it training Danes on Greenland to fight the mainland.
China seeks to reclaim Taiwan as part of China for the same reason Taiwan seeks to reclaim the mainland as part of China.
Yeah these guys are dreaming that China won't invade Taiwan.
China is not the good guys now... America is just fuckin worse
If you believe in good guys and bad guys as an adult I've got a fuckin Harry Potter wand to sell you
Not every country in the world is as corrupt as the the US.
You let your politicians trade shares, what else do you all expect to happen?
No capitalist country can have a good democracy, some have just way better PR than others. Hell, the crackdown on pro Palestinian protests in western liberal democracies proves that.
You should try basing your beliefs on facts and evidence sometime.
China was just talking recently about how Taiwan is there's...
What world do you live in where China won't invade Taiwan eventually...
They've been "just recently" talking about how Taiwan is theirs for the past 70 years and haven't done shit.
I live in a world where basic pattern recognition exists.
When it becomes untenable for the US to maintain a global military hegemony Taiwan will reluctantly submit to being in the Chinese orbit because of geographical realities and then be firmly on a path to reunification. It's very likely the only blood that will be spilled will be by the chud protestors.
Since the PRC has literally not invaded Taiwan for longer than my grandparents were alive, yeah I'll believe this.
"China are the baddies because of something they haven't done, but totally will!"
Deeply unserious
Speculation? China has set a deadline for this to happen! And they've already taken territory of several other countries by force, including all of Tibet.
Tibet has historically been part of China for a long time, which is probably why Taiwan claims it along with the rest of China (in fact, Taiwan's claims go further and include Mongolia). Tibet broke away along with a bunch of other warlord states in the chaos following the fall of the Qing dynasty, and was never internationally recognized as an independent country. Its people were freed from the tyrannical, slave owning theocracy and rejoined the country, which led to the doubling of their average life expectancy (along with the rest of China). China's claim to Tibet is about as valid as the US claim to the Confederate States.
All of that happened over 70 years ago under Mao, before the country shifted focus with major reforms in the 80s. Though to be fair to you, there aren't exactly a lot of recent wars involving China for you to choose from, are there? Not your fault you have to go back 70 years.
So Russia has a right to control Ukrain too by that logic?? What year exactly should we all revert world borders back to and why?
Hmm? I think you've got that backwards. Ukraine is the one trying to reclaim lost territory that's currently under Russia's control, is it not? What year exactly should we revert world borders back to and why?
I wonder if you can see the problem with the naive solution of trying to "lock in" whatever the present borders are. If a country seizes territory, even without any justification, that territory is now part of the present borders, and therefore would be "locked in" by that standard, suggesting that anyone who tried to take it back is the aggressor (until they succeed in reclaiming it).
I think that what you're asking is a very complicated and valid question, even if you didn't mean it in earnest. The question of what makes a country legitimate is quite complicated. I would argue that the "north star" of legitimacy is what outcome is best for the people. In the case of Taiwan, I think the best outcome is to maintain the status quo of de facto independence without rocking the boat with things like formal independence. It's not worth starting world war 3 over a formality.
But when you have a "country" like the Confederacy or Tibet, which keeps people in bondage under horrible conditions, then obviously the best outcome is for them to be defeated and taken over by someone else. Slavery and serfdom are automatically delegitimizing.
There's also another reason why reunifying Tibet was justified, which is explained very succinctly by the 1944 US War Department film, "Why We Fight: The Battle For China:"
The part of China's history where it was broken up into these warlord states was part of what they call, "The Century of Humiliation," when Chinese people were subject to imperialism and aggression from many different countries, worst of all being Imperial Japan. Because the country was so fractured, it was difficult to mount an organized, collective defense. This was understood by basically everyone, by the US, by the communists, and by the nationalists. That's why the communists and nationalists were willing to form a unified front against the warlord states despite their major ideological differences, because it was obvious to everyone at that time that a unified China - a "One China Policy" - was important and necessary. Even today, both the PRC and ROC formally agree on the idea of a One China Policy, and the US has (in the past at least) as well.
But again, today, I personally believe in maintaining the status quo, where Taiwan is de facto independent. There's significant precedent that this can maintain peace and keep everyone relatively satisfied. The same precedent did not exist in Tibet or in any of the other warlord states. Furthermore, Taiwan has significantly better human rights and conditions in general than Tibet where you'd die a serf at age 30. The whole "Free Tibet" thing is pure propaganda, only followed by people who are completely ignorant of the actual facts of what life was like there before.