Taiwan’s vice president, whose party has emphasized the island’s sovereignty, defeated an opposition party that favors reviving engagement with China.
  • keet@kbin.social
    462·
    10 months ago

    Good. Taiwan may have once been a province of China, but with over half a century of self-rule it is time to stop pretending that this is still the case. Hong Kong is a very good example for what “reunification” would mean for Taiwan even in the best of cases.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      19·
      10 months ago

      over half a century of self-rule

      Seem like this is understating it a bit (even if technically true). It’s been 75 years.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        13·
        10 months ago

        It’s always fun to go over lists of countries that are younger than Taiwan.

        Virtually all of Africa is younger, gaining independence from the various colonial powers in the 60s or so, Eastern Europe is younger thanks to the fall of communism in the 90s. The Caribbean states are younger, also after gaining independence from their colonial powers. Bangladesh is younger, Israel is younger, North and South Korea are younger, Qatar, Singapore, Syria, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Cyprus…

        There are currently 193 member states in the UN, and my guess is that about half of them are younger than Taiwan. (I haven’t found a good sortable list of country age to check this over though).

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
    343·
    10 months ago

    China will use this as an excuse to escalate further. More aggression and saber rattling.

    • Nougat@kbin.social
      262·
      10 months ago

      China just had it’s extremely entrenched corruption revealed to the world, such that a quickly successful attack on Taiwan is off the table, and they know it. China is in no position to wage war against anyone, and won’t be for a very long time.

    • Howdy@lemmy.zip
      3·
      10 months ago

      Same thinking here. China already made up it’s mind I believe and this is gonna be just another justification to escalate. Sorta like Russia saying “NATO encroachment and nazis torturing Russian citizens”. China gonna do something, just a matter of when now.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      10 months ago

      None of the parties were People’s Republic of China-friendly.

      DPP is in favor of a Taiwanese identity and closer ties to the west.

      TPP is a newer centrist party between the DPP and KMT that courted the youth vote but also favors more independence from China.

      KMT is the old guard that ruled the island for decades, and while they favor “closer ties to China”, they’re a “one China” party with a twist: there’s one China and it’s legitimate government is in Taipei. Taiwan’s official name is the “Republic of China” and the KMT are the only group still really holding on to the idea that 75 years after they were forced to flee to Taiwan, they’re still a contender for the rightful rulers of all of China.

      Beijing wasn’t going to be happy with any result.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
    281·
    10 months ago

    I wish the headlines would mention that it’s a win for the incumbent party:

    The candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is current Vice President Lai Ching-te, with Hsiao Bi-khim as the running mate. The DPP has held the Presidency for eight years under the current President, Tsai Ing-we.

    https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/we-visited-the-border-waters-between

    It generates more clicks to make it seem like an upset, but it’s pretty normal to re-elect the incumbent party if things are going reasonably well.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    For many of the millions of Taiwanese citizens who lined up at ballot booths on Saturday, the vote centered on the question of who should lead Taiwan in an increasingly tense standoff with its much larger, autocratic and heavily armed neighbor, China.

    At the D.P.P.’s gathering outside its headquarters in Taipei, thousands of supporters, many of whom waved pink and green flags, cheered as Mr. Lai’s lead grew during the counting of the votes, which was displayed on a large screen on an outdoor stage.

    And Mr. Ko, the third-party candidate who had sought to appeal to voters fed up with the two established parties, despite falling in the polls, had continued to draw large numbers to his rallies, including nearly 200,000 people on Friday night.

    The parade was festive, with candidate vans playing thumping club music, and several supporters dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes for no apparent political reason.

    Before Mr. Lai assumes the presidency in May, Taiwanese people — along with officials in Beijing and Washington — will be watching for any early signs of his approach to China, Taiwan’s biggest trading partner as well as a growing threat to its autonomy.

    He has promised to stick with the approach of the current leader, President Tsai Ing-wen: keeping Beijing at arm’s length while seeking to avoid conflict, and strengthening ties with the United States and other democracies.

    The original article contains 1,104 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
      241·
      10 months ago

      several supporters dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes for no apparent political reason.

      This is my favorite part right here 😂❤️

  • iain@feddit.nl
    94·
    10 months ago

    People here seem to think that the parties that want unification are pro-CCP. Taiwan (until now) thinks they are the rightful rulers of China. A decent part of three Taiwanese still want reunification. I’m happy that they don’t have that delusion anymore, and I hope China follows suit, but let’s not see the situation here too black and white.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      3·
      10 months ago

      A decent part of the Taiwanese still want reunification, but they don’t have the delusion of what - being the rightful rulers of China?

      You hope China follows suit of what, not wanting “reunification”?

      Although “reunification” wouldn’t be what happens and would be a bad word for if China took over. It’d probably be more like “forced subjegation”.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      10 months ago

      Most current Taiwanese don’t think they’re the rightful rulers of China. But, some groups have never completely given up that claim. The official name of Taiwan is the “Republic of China”, as in “Republic of all of China, including the parts currently under the control of PRC”

      Given that the DPP just won again, I’d say it’s fair to guess that more than half the country thinks of themselves as more Taiwanese than Chinese.

      It was the KMT that still represented the belief that the rightful rulers of all of China is the exiled government of the Republic of China currently based in Taiwan. But, I think even most KMT voters don’t really think they’re the rightful rulers of the mainland anymore. They just think of themselves as having a Chinese identity.

      If something magical happened and overnight China became a liberal democracy, I think there would be many people in Taiwan who would want to go “home” to China. But, I’d guess it isn’t a majority anymore. My guess is that even among the people who think of themselves as Chinese rather than Taiwanese, most of them now consider Taiwan to be home.