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China has grown more new forest cover than any nation on Earth (media.mas.to)

submitted 1 year ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-30-years-of-deforestation-and-forest-growth-by-country/

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[-] axont@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago

Of course it's purely diplomatic, acknowledging countries is diplomacy. The end result is the same.

[-] YaBoyMax@programming.dev -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The end result here being the non-acknowledgement of Taiwan's de facto sovereignty, which is decidedly not a reflection of reality. I dare you to tell a Taiwanese person that they live in a dependent province of the PRC because other countries serving their own interests said so and see how they respond.

[-] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 27 points 1 year ago

The bulk of Taiwanese support the status quo, including that being their official diplomatic position, so I think it would go over better than you imagine. The diehard separatists are a minority faction.

[-] YaBoyMax@programming.dev -3 points 1 year ago

The status quo has broad support because it keeps the peace, and the Taiwanese people generally don't want to fight a war against China. That doesn't equate to the majority of the Taiwanese people holding the view that they're a part of the PRC and it should be fairly obvious that they don't believe nor want that.

[-] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago

You're the one that invited the thought experiment. I'm sure that is they were polled, they would also say that eternal youth and space travel would be nice, but they need to live in reality, and in reality the path they support is one where their official status as far as most international organizations are concerned is that Taiwan is part of the PRC.

You can't expect anyone to take you seriously when you are so blatantly trying to cherrypick concepts that support you and explain away those that don't.

I sure wonder how the descendants of the pre-1947 inhabitants -- those who survived the White Terror, I mean -- feel about this issue vs the blatant settler-colonial population of the "government in exile" shoe factory co-founded by the US

[-] axont@hexbear.net 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The reality is the Taiwan isn't broadly recognized as a sovereign country, so it doesn't wield the same authority as an independent nation in terms of international agreements, trade, etc. It doesn't have allies who would defend potential sovereignty, and it doesn't have enough guns or money to leverage itself as independent. That's way more important than some abstract discontent some people feel. At best you could say Taiwan is a Chinese client state.

Countries don't exist because some people feel like they should be one. I could ask you to talk to a Texan secessionist and tell them their cause is hopeless.

I will tell a person living in Taiwan they live in a province of China, sure. I don't care. Their government is the remnant of the defeated nationalist faction and I have no sympathy for it. I have way more sympathy for the Gaoshan and other indigenous Taiwanese people who aren't represented well. Taiwan will hopefully get reabsorbed into the mainland within my lifetime.