Is it time to recognize Taiwan as an independant nation?

[wonderboy416]

Taiwan exists in a grey area. For all intents and purposes, it operates as a completely sovereign nation. They have their own elections, own military, own healthcare, own industries (the semi conductor capital of the world), passports that are universally accepted around the world etc.

Thanks to the pull of China they are only recognized as an independent nation by a handful of countries. They must compete in events such as the Olympics as "Chinese Taipei" and cannot fly their own flag or play their anthem.

The Chinese gov't recognizes it as only a special region and still considers it a province (although the Taiwanese gov't operates completely independently of theirs). This is an ultra-sensitive issue for the Chinese and Taiwanese. The Chinese receive a censored version of reality, and the Taiwanese are conflicted, although the majority favour not returning to China.

To me it just seems weird that such a highly advanced country that has shown the entire world how to go from third world to first in a couple of decades doesn't receive proper recognition for being their own nation. They did it with no help from "mother China". Their people are free, enjoy terrific access to first-rate education and health care, they have an unusually high employment rate and are on the cutting edge of technology.

The obvious answer is to let them sort out their differences... however if it weren't for China using their position as a bully in the past Taiwan would have been its own independent nation long, long ago.

 

[afransen]

Chinese bullying of Taiwan is a preview of what the rest of the world has to look forward to as China's power and reach increases. I'm not looking forward to it.

 

[Second_in_pie]

I say that Taiwan should be a country in it's own right. It's well established in the international market and is very, very far politically from the rest of China. It can easily manage on it's own, and China doesn't get much by keeping the bond, except a disputed claim to an island that wants to be independent.

Chinese bullying of Taiwan is a preview of what the rest of the world has to look forward to as China's power and reach increases. I'm not looking forward to it.

Thankfully, China's population is actually expected to go down as the continue industrializing (repercussions of the one child policy and a period of high emigration before the country's fully industrialized and almost a total democracy.) It'll definitely be more powerful than the US, but it won't be a trump card. Also, as Chinese democracy becomes further fledged out, they'll become less and less of the huge industrial power that they are (fueled by very low wages,) and will probably be more like the US, catering to themselves and alienating the world. If they were smart, they wouldn't, but they wouldn't be able to use their manufacturing power to threaten the rest of the world like they can now. Instead, it'll be shifted to corporations and other such businesses that are much harder to control internationally.

However, India's population is expected to swell to 1.8 billion in the next 50 years I think, and since the government is having huge troubles managing the population currently, I have to shudder to think what would happen with almost double the population. However, it wouldn't be in any bulling capacity, because if it becomes the low-wage industrial country of the world, most of it will likely be underground (when I say that I mean outside the law,) instead of government-subsidized like China. But imagine if they drafted all able-bodied people in the country and had the shoe-making children in sweatshops making guns and rockets instead? Scary!
Unfortunately, that government looks like it's gonna be a mess, especially with the increasingly volatile conditions in eastern Pakistan, an unsolved separatism problem in Sri Lanka, and a number of authoritarian and unliberal governments in the region that need to be looked after.

 

[Brandon716]

If Taiwan recognizes itself as an independent nation, we should recognize it as an independent nation. Its not like China has had any effective control over the island nation in decades.

 

[Dan416]

I guess I'll have to go against the flow on this one. I don't believe Taiwan should be a separate country. It never was before. The government in Taiwan is actually the government of China from before communism, IIRC. I don't think they see themselves any differently than just being a part of China. They're democratic, yes, and have their own military. But if Mainland China was democratic, I'm sure Taiwan would want to be a part of it. I think in the end, Taiwan will be part of China again. I also believe South Korea and North Korea should reunify. And Vulcan and Romulus should reunify as well, although that's impossible now, in both timelines.

 

[golodhendil]

We should recognize Taiwan as an independent country when the people of the Free Area of the Republic of China, through a means of their own choosing (either a referendum as proposed by the DPP, or a motion of the Legislative Yuan, etc), declares itself to be an independent country, repudiate its official position as the sole legitimate sovereign government of China, and rescind its constitutional claims to Mainland China and Outer Mongolia. To recognize it as "independent" before their own people do it would have as much legitimacy as telling, say, France to start recognizing Quebec as an independent country tomorrow.

 

[wonderboy416]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/30/taiwan.arms/index.html

Interesting read.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/30/taiwan.arms/index.html

Interesting read.

And that's why I voted the way I did, keep the hell out of that mess. But keep shopping at Walmart and Dollarama!