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Thoughts?

Is this imperialism by China, a country which is supposed to be left-wing? Leftists are normally anti-imperialism. Wouldn't it be better to let Taiwan democratically decide whether they want to be part of China or not?

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[-] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Yes, it is imperialism. Also, China has an authoritarian state controlled by a privileged ruling class and is therefore far-right.

[-] VeryInterestingTable@jlai.lu 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

What do you mean? 99.99% of the chinese people are charing 0.000001% of their countrie's wealth like true communists.

/s

[-] y0kai@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago

Was just about to say the same.

Authoritarian state-capitalism is not a leftist ideology.

[-] zd9@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Lol calling China Leftist isn't quite the thing. They are technically "communist" but no more so than the National Socialist German Workers' Party was socialist.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

China isn't technically communist. The Communist Party of China is technically communist in ideology. They have implemented a type of a mixed state that has both socialist and capitalist parts, decently described by the term - socialist market economy. Or socialism with Chinese characteristics as it's been called in the past. Why socialism? Because the socialist part controls the capitalist part of the economy. Why socialist? Because it's controlled by the CPC/CCP which has over 100M members and growing, which means the wider society is decently represented within the party that controls the state.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

A horse can call itself a duck, but that doesn't make it a duck; it's still a horse.

Likewise, a country that calls itself communist while practicing capitalism under a hierarchical ruling party isn't communist. Even if every member of the CCP had equal say in the country's policies and direction, 8% of the total population is far from representing the working class, let alone being led by them.

They're not communist, correct. They're capitalist.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

8% of the total population is far from representing the working class, let alone being led by them.

Yup, it can and it should be much larger. I saw a chart showing membership growth of 2-3% per year. That said even at the present numbers it means every third family or so has a party member.

Again, China isn't calling itself communist. And I don't think they're. That said capital is subordinate to state control, which is subordinate to an org that most people can participate in, so personally I grant them the socialist (market economy) label that they tend to use. But I do understand why not everyone does.

To be clear, if you're not communist, it doesn't mean you're capitalist. There's a lot in between and it's often a matter of degree of one thing or another. Feudalism didn't turn into capitalism the moment the fist capitalist firm formed. It transitioned to capitalism as more and more production became capitalist, at some point becoming the dominant mode of production.

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[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 month ago

China is only nominally left; they're deeply conservative, and don't exactly empower the people. They are imperialist, as was the USSR.

And Taiwan did democratically decide what they want. It would be better if China also got to democratically decide what they want.

[-] minorkeys@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

China hasn't exerted any political authority over Taiwan in 80 years and Taiwan declared itself a separate nation long ago, supported by the will of the people of Taiwan. Anything else is the will of a conqueror.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

I wonder how many people living in Taiwan were alive back when China controlled it. Probably 90% + of the population has never known anything but independent Taiwan

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[-] adhd_traco@piefed.social 15 points 1 month ago

Alternative headline:

China's authoritarian leader Xi Jinping reiterates intent to subjugate neighboring country Taiwan in New Year's Eve speech.

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Isn't it just such a fucking coincidence you have all these assholes coming to the same conclusions at the same time?

Putin invaded Ukraine and would love to Hitler his way across Europe in the name of "unity."

Trump invades Venezuela, yet pretends to be an antiwar isolationist only taking necessary action to protect the U.S. from the flow of fentanyl (which has never been coming from Venezuela, but why let facts get in the way of a shitty narrative).

Now China will invade Taiwan and the U.S. will refuse to get involved because Trump is totally an "isolationist." (At least when it comes to other continents).

Yep. Totally a coincidence and not a shared strategy for a global fascist takeover by a new axis of evil.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

IMO china is making a mistake here. there's one way to poison yourself and that is to eat something that does not want to be eaten. and the same is the case here. china is a successful country and they could just call that a win and leave it at that. instead, they (think they) have to swallow taiwan, and they will poison themselves. they will get a lot of people into their country that do not want to become a part of china, and they will seek to destroy china from the inside, which is much easier to do than from the outside, and this could become a real danger to china. china should not seek to conquer taiwan against the will of its people.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

China has some really big domestic issues right now with record unemployment rates so naturally their drumming up nationalism to distract people. Though AI boom is carrying China through and I really hope they back down.

From what I see on Tiktok right now the propaganda machine is in full swing. Every video on Taiwan is spammed by bots saying "Taiwan is China". With Taiwan's opposition blocking defense budget it 100% seems like China will go through political offense first before invading.

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[-] Aljernon@lemmy.today 6 points 1 month ago

Does this mean Lai Ching-te is gonna to be the president of One China?

Leftists are normally anti-imperialism

You've apparently never spoken to a Marxist-Leninist though some would argue they are not Leftists.

[-] rarsamx@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

For those unfortunate enough to live in a country which doesn't generally teach economic policy.

Economic systems are tangencial to political systems.

You can have left wing democracies or dictatorships. Same with right win. It can be a democracy or a dictatorship or anything in between.

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago

Well Russia was allowed to try imperialism, China can't resist being upstaged.

[-] BoJackHorseman@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

So was America with Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Not to mention the 800 military bases in over 80 countries.

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[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

West Taiwan: baby let's get back together!

Taiwan: no! you were an asshole to me!

West Taiwan: I wasn't asking.

Taiwan: this is what I'm fucking talking about!

[-] chaogomu@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

The break-up was a little different... Chiang Kai Shek was just as much of a monster as Mao. He was just a capitalist monster so the west supported him.

He was just as much of a monster after he was driven off of the mainland.

He and Reverend Moon directly funded literal Nazi death squads in South America.

But that fucker is dead, and Taiwan is a functional democracy, unlike the mainland.

They don't want to "unify", they can see what happens to places China "unifies" with.

[-] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Now is the perfect time for them to do it, I can see why! America may not even respond.

Yes, I know we are an ally and we're supposed to immediately go to war. So what? We promised to defend Ukraine from Russia, too. Look what happened.

[-] Hello_there@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

Invading Taiwan without damaging the things that make it valuable seems tough.

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[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

WW3 all the imperialists are acting at once

[-] Etterra@discuss.online 3 points 1 month ago
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[-] daannii@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Pretty sure tawain ain't interested in being absorbed back by China.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Weird way to announce your surrender but ok

[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

it really sucks for the 90%+ of Taiwanese people who don't want to become part of China

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[-] peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I'd be amazed if China didn't take advantage of the current inept and corrupt American government.

[-] bunchberry@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We still posting "news" like it's 1921.

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I don't really see how this is any different than 50 or 20 years ago, they're just stating their geopolitical stance.

More to the point, as others have mentioned, it would be exceedingly difficult to invade Taiwan and capture their fabs intact.

Actually it wouldn't even matter if they captured them intact because the US could just eliminate the supply line, making it unideal for production to continue for several years.

And unlike Ukraine, the US actually has a lot of interest and dependency on Taiwan, meaning they would get militarily invovled immediately.

China's only benefit would be the elimination of the world's primary chip manufacturing, and unrestricted access to the Pacific ocean.

I only see them doing it after they've achieved complete independence from Taiwan's fabs in their own supply chain.

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this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
58 points (93.9% liked)

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