• Xi Jinping accused the US of trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, the Financial Times said.
  • The Chinese leader made the claim to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, per the FT.
  • One expert told BI it’s a sign that China is “genuinely surprised” by the attitude of US officials.

For decades, the US has adopted “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, positioning itself as the country’s most steadfast ally, while declining to explicitly say whether it would come to Taiwan’s aid if China attacked.

But the mood in Washington, DC, seems to be shifting, with Congress showing itself more “overtly supportive of Taiwan than only a few years ago,” Graeme Thompson, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, told Business Insider in November.

The US has plenty of public figures now talking of Taiwan like it is a new Ukraine, and some even saying it needs to be diplomatically recognized,” Brown added.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    We need to stop acknowledging the one China policy. China is threatening war against Taiwan, and there should be absolutely zero doubt that we don’t condone Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.
    EU and other allies should of course not support it either.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      I mean China can’t really do anything about the autonomous mainland provinces steadfastly refusing to declare independence, even if you can find precedent of a sovereign state kicking out its provinces unilaterally it’d still be a dick move.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        What? I have no idea where that came from? The One China policy is about reuniting Taiwan with mainland China.

        In principle I don’t mind that China wants Taiwan to reunite with China, as long as they are perfectly peaceful about it, like with Germany and Est Germany.

        But what are you talking about?

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          The one China policy is first and foremost about the principle that there is only one China. Hence the name: That the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are still locked in a civil war, that neither declared independence from the other. There is no “reuniting” because you cannot unite what is not split, they’re still one.

          Which is a rather different situation from divided Germany: The East declared independence as a new state, and the West accepted it. The West still considered Eastern citizens who made their way across the border her own citizens, but there was no “you can’t have your own sovereign state” stuff going on, from either side. Upon reunification the East re-introduced its federal states, which then jointly but individually joined the West, leaving the East without territory and people which thus vanished in a puff of how international law defines the concept of a state.

          The Mainland could pull an East Germany and declare independence at any time, Taipei would accept it. Some old-guard Kuomintang would gripe but they’d get over it. Taipei declaring independence makes no sense… independence from whom? Imperial China? They won that struggle before the PRC even existed. It’s the PRC which is rebel faction in the civil war, you don’t declare independence from rebels if then you grant them independence and, well, the rebels don’t want independence.

        • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          They’re making a “Taiwan is actually China” joke. Referring to the mainland as “provinces that refuse to declare independence”

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            OK, I missed that completely, but I can see that’s actually quite funny.

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          The one China policy is just a diplomatic hedge.

          Everyone will SAY there is “one China”, but nations can make defense pacts with specific “parts” of China, even in the event of “invasion” from a different part of that same “one China”.

          One China is about those mental gymnastics. Buying into “one China” isn’t about supporting the reunification of Taiwan. Never was. It’s the opposite.