It’s almost as if having control of your own community is democracy, something that has since been absent from most nations.

The party and the person I’m referring to is FVD (NL: Forum Voor Democratie; Eng: Forum For Democracy), and their party leader is Thierry Baudet. In the previous election they were the biggest party in the country.

Another fascist party is the PVV (NL: Partij Voor Vrijheid; Eng: Party For Freedom) with Geert Wilders as it’s leader. They used to be one of the biggest parties in the country, but FVD mostly absorbed their voters in the last election.

As to why they are fascists, that’s pretty easy. I adopt the framework first proposed by Robert Griffin, as it’s particularly useful. Fascism is palingenetic ultranationalism, which means ultranationalism with a focus on rebirth with biblical undertones. This is a common trend you see in fascist nations such as Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany. And also contemporary parties such as Shinzo Abe’s party and FVD and PVV here in the Netherlands.

They constantly advocate for a ‘renaissance’ of Dutch ‘culture’, how were are a shell of our formers selves, and how the national identify, while the most important, is under attack. This pretty clearly fits the definition of fascism.

Luckily enough, for Thierry Baudet of FVD it’s even easier as he’s made comments in radio interviews before how he wants to live in a predominantly white Netherlands (but later changing his messaging to ‘culture’ because overt racism is difficult to sell, while also despising any contemporary art or culture and wanting to completely cut funding for it). He’s also suggested in a discussion with a black political scientist that black people are less intelligent by stating that “there’s a reason all Nobel prize winners are white”.

Doesn’t get much more clear than that.

The implementation of one country two systems has nothing to do with Taiwan, since Taiwan is independent.

You seem to have a very warped view of history.

Hong Kong and Taiwan always were China

I do not know what you mean with the use of ‘always’. Taiwan was first inhabited by their aborigine people and Hakka immigrants, until the Dutch colonised it around 1624. Then it was annexed by the Qing dynasty. This lead to many many rebellions against their imperial rule. Later it was seceded to Taiwan around the end of the 19th century, and since then it has never been controlled by the PRC.

And China is well known over MILLENNIALS to be an earth of exquisite DIPLOMACY not annexing or invading as the USA or UK still do.

In recent years China has annexed Tibet, and in the past Taiwan, Manchuria, Korea, and parts of Vietnam to name a few. Where do you think they got their territory from? The people already living there happily gave it away? It was conquered.

ZERO colonies in several thousands of years being the most advanced civilization, with gunpowder, paper rice citric fruits and pasta it would have been very easy to conquer all the world, and they didn’t, preferring commerce and the silk route.

China also has a history filled with internal strive, infighting, and constant attempts at greater control. China is already the size where it can be considered an empire. They might not have colonised, but around the time when naval technology was advanced enough to actually start colonies, China was already starting to fall behind some European nations. So your point is quite irrelevant.

You posted a lot of good and quite accurate information.

Not only would there be legislative difficulty with changing the constitution, there would also be the fear of Chinese retaliation. The PRC considers themselves the successor of the ROC. Because of this, they also still lay claims on Taiwan. And if the ROC were to dissolve, and form a new independent nation of Taiwan, this would be a casus belli for the PRC, and they’ve said as much before.

EDIT: When you’re too busy cock-sucking an totalitarian oppressive dictatorship that you don’t have any time to support actual socialist principles like freedom and equality. Downvote what you want, you don’t give a shit about socialism.

From this comment I can tell you are way out of your depth, and commenting on things you have very little actual understanding of. I’d advise you to dive a little deeper than the surface before making claims.

Taiwan claims all of their former territory in their constitution, adopted in 1947. This was towards the end of the civil war, a few years before the establishment of the PRC, and when the nationalist party of the KMT would retreat to Taiwan. However, since the PRC also claims all the territory of the ROC, seeing themselves as the rightful successor, Taiwan is now locked into their old constitution. Changing the constitution, would be an act of succession and thus war.

This is however not at all in line with either the status quo or public opinion. The status quo is that Taiwan is a fully independent nation, with it’s own military, foreign relations, and China has zero influence over the vibrant newly democratic island nation.

In terms of public opinion, the opinion especially now is firmly against re-unification with the PRC, especially under current circumstances. This stance has pretty much always polled abysmal single digit numbers. Some nationalists still favour ‘closer’ ties with China, both their numbers are decreasing every year. The vast majority of the country favours the status quo independence (out of fear for Chinese military aggression) or declaring independence outright.

So while the legal documents might make those claims, no one actually takes those seriously, or actually wants those claims. However changing them would risk an invasion.

EDIT: When you’re too busy cock-sucking an totalitarian oppressive dictatorship that you don’t have any time to support actual socialist principles like freedom and equality. Downvote what you want, you don’t give a shit about socialism.

I don’t entirely agree when the author seems to suggest that China absolutely does not want to take over the world. While evidence is at somewhat circumstantial, a aggressively nationalistic government with a history of annexing/invading territories (Tibet, Vietnam, Hong Kong), and current clear aggressive language towards invading another country (Taiwan), there is some basis for these concerns.

While they might not be after global domination right now, there is also historical precedent.

The rest I agree with mostly. The US and other western nations like to see themselves as free and liberal, while they aren’t that different from authoritarian regimes. I do however have better hope of reform within a western nation, than an openly totalitarian regime like China.

The goal should be to fight oppression everywhere. In ‘liberal’ nations, and in dictatorships.

By far the world’s best corona virus response, Taiwan sees the 52nd day in a row without a local infection. Out of the total 443 (with a total population of 23 million), only 55 are suspected to be local infections, while the other are imported, or from a military naval vessel.

Absolutely staggering results, and hats of to the CECC for keeping the entire country safe, when so many nations with greater resources failed to do so.

With the recent news of a top KMT official (Hsieh Li-kung 謝立功) moving to the TPP, and him now supporting further cooperation with the KMT while party secretary of the TPP, it seems that the TPP is trying to move into the KMT’s spot. Lest not forget that the TPP during the lead up to the elctions was moving closer to the KMT side already. Mayor Ko might have started out as a centrist, but is definitely moving into the pan-blue camp.

Absolutely horrible to see this happen. The private ‘university’ in question already had a very low reputation, but this should be enough reason to either place them under much stricter oversight, or close them outright. It’s something that simply isn’t acceptable.

I’d want to government to put significant resources into stronger and wider oversight. As it stands right now, there simply isn’t enough man power to properly check everything, and this leads to abuses like these.

Obviously, overall consumption of energy has risen, so it’d be interesting to overlay this with total carbon production.

In Holland however they are relatively a minor problem. Apart from that one could wonder about the more subtle white collar fascism.

Literal neo-Nazis aren’t that common, but that’s also because they aren’t very open yet. Fascism can very easily turn into neo-Nazism, and the differences aren’t even that important. One of the biggest parties in the Netherlands is run by a text book fascist.

It’s a very difficult thing to actually do something about, especially if you’re not from Flanders. Belgian politics is kind of notorious for being divided, especially between Flanders and Wallonia.

If you’re keen on fighting this though, it’s always best to turn to activism (even though it can be difficult). Try and expand the influence of the Socialist Party and other centre of left parties, and inspire other to do the same. The best action taken is almost always those in person.

While the coupons are to have a wide range of uses, including at department stores, restaurants, book stores, night markets, beauty and hair salons, hotels, and to purchase travel and concert tickets, they cannot be used to pay for online purchases, taxes, fines, cigarettes, stock bonds, insurance, credit card loans, pensions, gift cards or to store value.

While coupons might not be ideal compared to cash, there are some obvious benefits. Coupons promote direct spending, which cash does not. And with the restrictions in place it’s sure to do exactly that, and not just be put into the bank or other financial institutions. Which will help it actually go to the people and local businesses.

While Taiwan has so far not been included in the plans of other countries to allow tourists, it does seem unlikely for Taiwan to be left out for much longer. With probably the best corona virus response in the world, I hope that Taiwan can form a bubble with out countries with similar results, to allow some form of travel.

A move towards more transparency is always a good move, and this is one support by people from right (KMT, TPP) as well as left (NPP). So this is a welcome new initiative to further increase accountability of and trust in the government.

He’s an awful fascist that has said in previous interviews that he wants to live in a predominantly white nation, before he switch to talking about ‘culture’ and a ‘cultural renaissance’. He’s a text book fascist.