News
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
view the rest of the comments
I mean, for my own personal opinion - I've got no problem throwing money at Ukraine because Putin is an asshole and we can afford it, but throwing asylum seekers under the bus to do it is a moral abomination and political malpractice
It's not just for Ukraine! They're bending over backwards to fund Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza and adding fuel to the powder keg in Taiwan.
It's like they're trying to start WW3
"Adding fuel to the powder keg in Taiwan"
Yes, I am sure that Taiwan will invade China any day now.
I do love it when tankies casually out themselves.
It might decide to declare true independence and break away from China's government entirely, and then China would respond in the obvious way, and now WW3 has another front.
Arguably the only thing keeping Taiwan from being fully annexed right now is what they have built up militarily and that they are an island.
The powder keg you're bemoaning is them maybe putting up a fight in the future vs getting steamrolled quickly and without much fanfare.
If you think China has a right to the country, then sure I can see why you have a problem with them being able to defend themselves. Otherwise, I'm not sure what your point is. Taiwan isn't building up for an attack on China so maybe ease up on the victim blaming here.
Have you considered that China would prefer to avoid violence when they consolidate the country? And that, maybe, all of this military hardware and funding might make peaceful reunification harder?
Lol knew it
So shocking a country divided by civil war would want reunification! How sinister 🙄
Oh fuck off with your tankie bullshit. Nobody’s buying it.
I get it, China bad.
Whatever, I won't convince libs that we shouldn't be provoking China over Taiwan. Instead, I want you to think about the fact that Republicans are able to use this shit as leverage and now it's going to be harder for refugees to receive asylum. For Taiwan. What the fuck?
*When they consolidate...*hold up right there tankie. I thought you type where all about fighting imperialism.
Imperialism is when people disagree with the CCP.
Peaceful reunification between two regions of the same country isnt imperialism you dork.
"We want to do it peacefully, but if you resist we'll do it violently. This makes it not imperialism."
Do you even listen to yourself?
China isn't Russia. That just isn't how this is going to go.
It's literally what you said, dumbass. You said if Taiwan declares independence China will have no choice but to invade.
I did not use the word "invade"
Let me clarify; China will cut off trade and freedom of movement, begin blockading the straight, shut down banking and communications, etc. I doubt they'd land boots on the ground and they certainly wouldn't bomb Taiwan.
At least, not until Taiwan starts using all those shiney new weapons with the expectation that they have the full support of the United States. Then there'd be an invasion.
At the end of the day, you need to choose between war and peace. And it seems Democrats are willing to fuck over asylum seekers for the chance to start another war.
"There won't be an invasion until Taiwan reacts to literal acts of war"
Doubt.
That's still fucking imperialism, bootlicker.
Are America's sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela acts of war? If you agree that they are then I'll concede on that point.
Also you really don't understand what imperialism is, do you? Imperialism is an economic structure used to extract superprofit from imperialized nations. Annexation and integration are fundamentally different, because China has no plans to turn Taiwan into a labor/resource colony.
When France colonized Algeria they didn't declare Algerians to be French and grant them the full rights and privileges of French citizens. Get it?
Sanctions? No. A blockade? Fuck yes it would be.
Ah, the "White Man's Burden" argument, classic as far as imperialist bootlicking goes.
Okay, so you won't admit the embargo is a blockade.
Well, why wouldn't China do the same thing? Treat Taiwan exactly the same as America treats Cuba? That seems likely to me, and actually would be clever from a propaganda standpoint since they could use this to undermine US legitimacy.
Do you have any idea what the words 'embargo' and 'blockade' mean?
No shit.
But Tiwan wants China to fuck the fuck off. And hopefully if China ever pushes the issue, the Tiwan Straight seabed gains some new artificial reefs courtesy of the Chinese military.
Have I considered that China would like for the people it invades to just roll over and accept their new masters instead of fighting back?
Yeah, I considered that. It seems likely that they would want that. I have yet to think of any good reason why they should get that wish, though.
Reunification would open up more opportunities for cooperation and development. That's a pretty good reason.
It's not China's place to make that choice for Taiwan. If they want to entice Taiwan to join them voluntarily, well, they've done a pretty bad job showing how "beneficial" that would be when you look at Hong Kong.
Aside from some affordable housing issues, what's wrong with Hong Kong?
"In the obvious way"
Maybe the attempted subjugation of a nation should be blamed on the subjugator and not the democratic government which represents the to-be-subjugated?
China can't afford to have a hostile US aligned Taiwan. That's as unacceptable as the USSR putting nukes in Cuba. It's literally a threat to both their regional power and national security.
Also? Peaceful reunification is not some impossible thing, but it becomes much harder when hardline nationalists have endless military backing from the US.
... there already is a hostile US-aligned Taiwan, and has been for as long as the PRC has existed.
Therefore, it must be crushed, and it's the duty of every true anti-imperialist to lend critical support to Chinese imperialism.
It wasn't being armed to the teeth before.
Again, remember the Cuban missile crisis.
... what?
Are you completely unaware of the history of ROC-US relations? We've been arming them 'to the teeth' for as long as the PRC has existed.
August was literally the first time the US has ever directly transferred US military equipment to Taiwan.
Do not pretend like this isn't new or that there hasn't been an escalation.
Did you not read your own fucking source.
The difference is that the current program being used is one normally reserved for assistance to sovereign nations.
Yes, and under the previous program the US merely sold weapons like any other dealer. This new program provides grant assistance i.e. direct transfer of arms for free. That's clearly different!
You said:
But keep moving those goalposts, you'll find one you like eventually. Probably. If the heat death of the universe doesn't occur first.
I just literally said that arms sales are different from direct military transfer! How is that moving goalposts? Taiwan bought weapons before and, if I understand the grant program correctly, it's now getting them either greatly discounted or free. That's an escalation!
"This was literally the first time the US has ever directly transferred US military equipment to Taiwan."
"It's literally not, we have directly transferred arms for as long as Taiwan has been a thing, and your own fucking source notes that."
"Okay, but it's the first time you've ever directly transferred equipment for free!"
Yeah, definitely not a movement of the goalposts. I'm always at a loss as to whether tankies are dumb or just disingenuous cretins.
Transaction is different from transfer.
If I buy a gun, the store is not directly transferring the gun to me. It's a transaction.
If I am granted a gun grant by the store and then get a gun for free or greatly discounted through a guaranteed low/zero interest loan, that's not really a transaction. That's a transfer.
Why do you deny that this is an escalation?
No, that is literally and legally a transfer and a transaction.
Jesus Christ.
Why do people with no understanding of language attempt to play semantic games?
An escalation of Taiwan's ability to defend itself against imperialism? You yourself admit that there's no chance of Taiwan invading China. So why is Taiwan being able to defend itself so worrying? If China's only interest is in peaceful reunification, Taiwan's military might is irrelevant. If China is willing to go to war to annex Taiwan against the wishes of it's people, that's imperialism, and makes you a bootlicker.
So why is this an escalation? Is that you support imperialism (obvious answer), or that you haven't fully thought through your own argument?
Oh, and for anyone following, in the past 30 years we've sold almost 100 billion dollars worth of military equipment to Taiwan, and are currently considering an aid package of 6 billion dollars over the next ten years. Much escalation. Very wow.
You're the one playing semantic games! Fuck, my point was that this new transfer is different and you jumped up my ass trying to pretend like zero escalation has happened and this is nothing new. This is clearly new! This is clearly a step above what we were doing before, and Democrats are selling out refugees to keep doing it (or did you forget what this thread is about?)
What the fuck ever. Technically transfer always happened. You were right.
But surely you realize that subsidized transaction is different from pure financial transaction!
Taiwan doesn't have to invade for these weapons to be used against China, you realize this right? All it takes is one boat being sunk because China is trying to control trade routes into Taiwan.
No, your point was the incorrect assumption based on headline reading and tankie telephone games that the US hadn't supplied Taiwan with weaponry before, which is patently false.
I still can't tell if you're just fucking stupid or disingenuous, or both. The bill in question, the bill in the article, the entire conversation around it, has nothing to do with Taiwan; Taiwan is something unrelated you brought up to wank over how evil and WARMONGERING the Democrats are for not sucking a dictator's toes like you do and how it's a "powder keg" that obviously slightly more military equipment over the next 10 years will cause to BLOW UP and FORCE the POOR OPPRESSED PRC to LIBERATE Taiwan the same way Russia is fucking liberating the Donbass right now.
In terms of 'escalation', not really. 6 billion free after selling almost 100 billion worth isn't anything more than token support.
"Oh no, how terrible, Taiwan won't let China use military force to control who gets in and out of Taiwan, it's a good thing this is an Anti-Imperialist(tm) move by China!"