this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
121 points (92.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

39492 readers
1779 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Everybody knows about the backstory, there was a civil war, KMT fled to Taiwan creating two Chinas sort of, maybe, neither recognises the other, whole thing. ROC (Taiwan) ended up transitioning from military rule to a multi-party democracy, while the PRC (mainland China) didn't do that (they did reform economically, "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and all that, but still a one-party state, not a multi-party democracy). The status quo right now is that Taiwan is in the grey area of statehood where they function pretty much independently but aren't properly recognised, and both sides of the strait are feeling pretty tense right now.

Taiwan's stance on the issue is that they would like to remain politically and economically independent of mainland China, retaining their multi-party democracy, political connections to its allies, economic trade connections, etc. Also, a majority of the people in Taiwan do not support reunification with China.

China's stance on the issue is that Taiwan should be reunified with the mainland at all costs, ideally peacefully, but war is not ruled out. They argue that Taiwan was unfairly separated from the mainland by imperial powers in their "century of humiliation". Strategically, taking Taiwan would be beneficial to China as they would have better control of the sea.

Is it even possible for both sides to agree to a peaceful solution? Personally, I can only see two ways this could go about that has the consent of both parties. One, a reformist leader takes power in the mainland and gives up on Taiwan, and the two exist as separate independent nations. Or two, the mainland gets a super-reformist leader that transitions the mainland to a multi-party democracy, and maybe then reunification could be on the table, with Taiwan keeping an autonomous status given the large cultural difference (similar to Hong Kong or Macau's current status). Both options are, unfortunately, very unlikely to occur in the near future.

A third option (?) would be a pseudo-unification, where Taiwan becomes a recognised country, but there can be free movement of people between the mainland and Taiwan, free trade, that sort of stuff (sort of like the EU? Maybe?). Not sure if the PRC would accept that.

What are your thoughts on a peaceful solution to the crisis that both sides could agree on?

edit: Damn there are crazies in both ends of the arguments. I really don't think giving Taiwan nukes would help solve the problem.

I think the current best solution, looking at the more reasonable and realistic comments, seems to be to maintain the status quo, at least until both sides of the strait are able to come into some sort of agreement (which seems to be worlds away right now given their current very opposing stances on the issue)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 115 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (73 children)

China should accept Taiwans sovereignty as a separate Chinese country, and stop being such a little bitch. The end.

load more comments (73 replies)
[–] BlackPenguins@lemmy.world 57 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Someone who threatens war to acquire land is not the good guy. Fuck them.

Yes I realize this also references you know who as well.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

Given human history, I think it references everyone. That’s not a dig, more acknowledgment that this isn’t actually new.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 31 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Taiwan need to stop claiming they are the legitimate government of China.

China need to recognise that Taiwan isn't part of China anymore.

Neither will happen.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (16 children)

A peaceful and realistic solution? Taiwan develops a strategic nuclear deterrent. They're already a near-nuclear country and an industrial and technological powerhouse. A nuclear bomb is fully within their capability, and they already have abundant supplies of all the precursor materials in their possession. The most realistic solution to the Taiwan crisis is that Taiwan obtains nuclear weapons, and China is never able to threaten them with invasion again.

[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Taiwan trying to develop nuclear weapons would be the fastest way to get themselves invaded. China would put a stop to it before it they could even say "nuclear deterrent".

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

And yet, plenty of other countries have managed to do it...

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Have you looked into the context of how they were able to do it and how difficult stopping them would have been?

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

China simply waits and maintains its current policy until pro-unification sentiment in Taiwan grows large enough. The balance of power in the Pacific is shifting away from the US and before this century is out they will no longer be able to offer security guarantees.

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 28 points 2 months ago (3 children)

All polling indicates that pro-unification sentiment isn't growing though. If China is waiting until they have consent of the Taiwanese, then why would security guarantees from the USA be relevant in the first place?

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] OppaGundamStyle@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 months ago (8 children)

After what China did to Hong Kong that’s never happening.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago (3 children)

反攻大陆 (Counterattack the mainland) 😏

/just kidding


I think the only peaceful unification would be if CCP falls and mainland China becomes an actual democracy with free and fair elections, then mainland, HK, Taiwan can form a union, where Taiwan and HK remains autonomous regions for domestic politics (and this automony would be backed by a constitution) and have a common front for defence.

I mean another option would be complete sovereignty but a European Union type of thing where they do cooperate and sort of is like a country, but maintain the option to leave.

But regardless, I think it all comes down to what HKers and Taiwanese want, you need a referrendum for these types of things. I'd say to have legitimacy: Two consecutive referrendums in two separate regularly scheduled election with majority approval before any plan is enacted, to attempt to prevent a Brexit shenanigan.

I'm Chinese American so while I do support democracy, I am kinda leaning towards reunification assuming that there is actually democracy, but again it all comes down to what the people think, the will of the people is more important than my opinions.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Zier@fedia.io 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Freedom for Taiwan and Hong Kong.

[–] Reliant1087@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 17 points 2 months ago

While I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, the only peaceful outcome I can see is actually just a continuation of the status quo, where mainland China uses "reunification" messaging as little more than a show of strength and patriotic political rhetoric, and where the Western world continues to treat Taiwan's independence with "strategic ambiguity" while hinting to China that any attempt to take Taiwan will be met with a large scale Western response from the US and allies.

I do think that the West wants Russia's attempted invasion of Ukraine to be a sign of what China should expect if they were to attempt to annex Taiwan. It won't be easy, it'll throw trade and supply chains into absolute chaos, and it'll be met with harsh economic sanctions and large weapons deals at the very least. The West wants China to feel that there is very little upside to attacking Taiwan, and that it's much more reasonable to maintain the status quo (though arguably, tariffs and trade wars needlessly remove some of the US's economic leverage over China).

Rhetoric aside, how much chaos and bloodshed is China really willing to tolerate just for the pyrric victory of finishing what Mao started almost a century ago?

I think the main hope for peace is that Xi and the ruling members of the CCP feel that it's in their personal best interest to talk a big game while doing the bare minimum to disrupt the systems that they currently benefit from.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 15 points 2 months ago

Realistic? The current status quo of everyone pretending Taiwan isn't a country and China not invading.

China isn't going to accept an independent Taiwan for a variety of reasons. That likely won't change unless there is a war.

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Let’s cut the bullshit: a lot of what’s being said here is just garden-variety racism dressed up as “concern for democracy.” The way some of you talk about mainland Chinese people(like we’re brainwashed bugs, NPCs, or extensions of the state) is dehumanizing. Full stop. You don’t speak this way about Americans living under mass surveillance, police violence, and corporate rule. You don’t speak this way about Europeans crushed by austerity. Somehow it’s only Chinese people who get stripped of agency.

IWe’re not a hive mind. We argue, complain, adapt, survive, organize families, build lives, same as anyone else. Reducing 1.4 billion people to propaganda victims just so you can feel morally superior is chauvinism. You can criticize the Chinese government without pretending the population is subhuman or that fuck x is legitimate criticism.

And this Hong Kong nostalgia is especially grotesque. You’re romanticizing a British colony run explicitly for banks and property tycoons. No elections for governors. Workers packed into coffin apartments. People waiting decades for public housing. Extreme inequality baked into law. But because it flew a Union Jack and spoke English, suddenly it becomes a paradise of “freedom”? That tells me everything about whose suffering you care about.

You also keep pretending Taiwan exists in some magical vacuum. It doesn’t. It’s the unresolved end of a civil war, frozen in place by US military power, and now functions as an unsinkable aircraft carrier pointed at the Chinese coast. Any major power on Earth would see that as an existential threat. The US would lose its mind if China parked missiles off California. But when China objects, suddenly it’s “authoritarian aggression.” (who remembers the Cuban missile crisis)

If you actually care about peace, stop parroting racist bullshit narratives. Stop flattening Chinese people into stereotypes. Stop acting like Western militarization of East Asia is neutral or benevolent. You don’t have to like the CPC. But if your worldview starts from “Chinese people are brainwashed and inferior,” even if you phrase it with better pr you're a racist.

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 28 points 2 months ago (197 children)

When does saying that "Taiwan should have the right to self-determination" require making any xenophobic or racist claims about Chinese people?

load more comments (197 replies)
[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I don't think I said anything about the brainwashing of Chinese people, nor did I romanticise British Hong Kong. I used to live in Hong Kong (post-British) and everything seemed alright, food was good and people were good. I did mention that Taiwan was a result of the KMT fleeing after the civil war, and fair enough, it only remained due to the U.S. fleet being in the waters, and having missiles pointed at you at all times is not nice at all.

edit: It was not directed at me, rather at the comments (in that case I can see how you feel)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The way some of you talk about mainland Chinese people(like we’re brainwashed bugs, NPCs, or extensions of the state) is dehumanizing. Full stop. You don’t speak this way about Americans living under mass surveillance, police violence, and corporate rule.

I've definitely seen this type of rhetoric being directed at Americans more and more as our current president continues to fuck up everything.

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago (41 children)

Maybe, but it’s nowhere near the same scale or normalization. Say something positive about China(from infrastructure to poverty reduction)and it’s instantly “propaganda,” “brainwashed,” “you can’t trust anything from there.” Americans don’t get treated that way as a people. US media is taken as baseline reality despite massive corporate and state influence, while Chinese society unfortunately often gets dismissed wholesale as incapable of independent thought.

load more comments (41 replies)
[–] Wakmrow@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

This thread is wild. All these "freedom and democracy" lovers apparently don't know anything about China or Taiwan. Give Taiwan nukes? Insanity.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The US would lose its mind if China parked missiles off California

It'd be pretty funny if China gave Cuba missiles.

But they're afraid to even give them oil to avert a US-imposed famine, so its unlikely we're gonna see China do something cool.

Btw, mander.xyz isn't blocked in mainland China like .ml

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago

But they’re afraid to even give them oil to avert a US-imposed famine, so its unlikely we’re gonna see China do something cool.

There is food aid and China built their solar infrastructure so they're not leaving them out to die. I think it's a complicated situation for China as the US has shown how crazy it can be and China enterting a hot war with them would be undesirable for the entire world to say the least.

Btw, mander.xyz isn’t blocked in mainland China like .ml

I use a VPN anyway so it's not really an issue I'm here to practice my English mostly while interacting with interesting people.

[–] Chonk@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

I'm garbage in history.

Can't we just treat it as relationships. I mean the reunification should only be done if both sides mutually agree. Forcing by any means is not good

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I mean wasn't it largely peaceful in the past? From China's perspective they only need to act if Taiwan or other countries make public statements challenging their legal claim to the island, it is better for China to wait as the power dynamics are shifting in their favor. It is only the west that wants to force this issue to come to head now, while they still have a comparative advantage - but even now if China wants Taiwan there is little we can do keep that from happening (though the humanitarian cost would be staggering and likely hurt their standing internationally).

Edit: I also don't see why mainland would suddenly pivot on the issue, there's seems very little reason to expect them to change course.

load more comments
view more: next ›