• 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.

  • Gsus4@programming.dev
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    16 days ago

    It’s not a trap, because they were warned beforehand about what would happen if you did it. It’s a dare, like in “Jackass!”.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    16 days ago

    We’re not starting WWIII over TSMC and nVidia’s stock price.

    Shit, most of the world won’t even recognise Taiwan as a country. I can hardly see Haiti, Paraguay and the Vatican coming to the rescue.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Shit, most of the world won’t even recognise Taiwan as a country.

      The thing the article seems to neglect. China is winning the diplomatic game globally. Taiwan is less well recognized than Palestine.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      pfft no, but we will fulfill our treaty obligations to the 24 million people who don’t deserve china’s bullshit.

      TSMC has kill switches installed already. China would only get a pile of slag if they tried it. and they won’t.

      What China should do is reassess the Treaty of Aigun - does it still really apply, considering today’s russians are neither the soviet block nor the russian empire? The areas in question are overwhelmingly asian in demographics. There’s a whole lot of resources up there just sitting around because russia’s never been able to chew bubble gum and walk at the same time, much less persecute a pointless, losing war while exploiting it’s own resources.

      • justaderp@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        pfft no, but we will fulfill our treaty obligations to the 24 million people who don’t deserve china’s bullshit

        I’ve got a bridge in New York for sale. It’s in Brooklyn. You could charge tolls and make billions! HMU.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          15 days ago

          I’ve got a bridge in New York for sale. It’s in Brooklyn. You could charge tolls and make billions! HMU.

          sure thing kiddo. blah blah blah.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    17 days ago

    You show America, Pooh Bear! Pledge to never attack Taiwan! Really show them by recognizing its sovereignty and normalizing trade relations!

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I’ve been saying for months that he should reclaim Upper Manchuria or Northern Manchuria. Don’t remember what it was called till Russia invaded in 1901. That would give him the military victory he’s looking for, and it’s not like anyone is gonna complain about Russia being weakened by losing its only warm water Pacific port. It’s currently called Vladivostok

    • neidu2@feddit.nl
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      17 days ago

      “Taiwan is its own state, and should remain so in perpetuity. China will be their shoreline supporters! --Xi”

      submit

      “Yeah, that’ll show them.”

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    17 days ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Chinese leader Xi Jinping has accused the US of trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, but he said it won’t take the bait, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

    According to the FT, Xi made the accusation during a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in April last year.

    Xi has issued the same warning to officials in his own country, one source told the FT, but this would be the first time he made the claim to a foreign leader, the outlet said.

    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 Thomson, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, told BI in November.

    Last month, a US congressional delegation met with senior Taiwanese officials to discuss US-Taiwan relations, a few days after China conducted military drills around the island.

    During a meeting in April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to cross China’s “red lines” on sovereignty, security, and development interests.


    The original article contains 555 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    We need to stop acknowledging the once China policy. China is threatening war against Taiwan, and there should be absolutely zero doubt that we don’t condone Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.
    This should of course go for EU and other allies too.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      17 days 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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        17 days 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?

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
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          16 days 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.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          16 days 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.

          • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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            16 days ago

            Eh, no.

            Western Germany recognized the border between Poland - the Oder-Neisse line in 1970.

            Additionally, while Western Germany recognized the GDR was its own state - starting 1972 - they didn’t recognize its right to exist under international law. The German constitution stated up until the reunification:

            The whole German People remains compelled to fulfill the Unity and Freedom of Germany by virtue of its right to free self-determination.

            This implied there was only one Germany, in area and population greater than just Western Germany.

            Also, German public broadcast used the upper left map for weather reporting up until the 70s, when they switched to the one on the top right without any borders. After the reunification, the bottom one was used:

            Additionally, reunified Germany put numerous GDR leaders and a few soldiers on trial for murdering those trying to flee the GDR. However, the courts had to argue with the GDR’s constitution - which fortunately for the courts was quite the self-contradictory document.

            • barsoap@lemm.ee
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              16 days ago

              Western Germany recognized the border between Poland - the Oder-Neisse line in 1970.

              There was no final settlement until 1990. Because you cannot give up claims on territory you don’t actually control, the ROC is in a similar situation with Mongolia. In Germany’s case there’s the additional complication that until 1990, occupation statutes still applied.

              This implied there was only one Germany, in area and population greater than just Western Germany.

              No, it didn’t. First off, the preamble isn’t actually part of the constitution, secondly, it did not in any way or form claim rule or sovereignty over the Eastern states. “We’d like to re-absorb those territories” is a different thing than “those territories remain ours”.

              Also, German public broadcast used the upper left map for weather reporting up until the 70s, when they switched to the one on the top right without any borders.

              Until the early 60s, both sides claimed to be the successor state to the German Empire, the GDR dropped that claim with the construction of the wall. After literally a decade of discussion the West changed to the Neue Ostpolitik in the early 70s and recognised the GDR as a separate state in its territory but did not change its own self-conception as successor state of the Empire. With that it also stopped applying the Hallstein doctrine, stopped to consider other states recognising the GDR as sovereign to be a hostile act.

              Then came the two-state period, then there was a revolution in the GDR and while we call it reunification, legally it was the absorption of federal states which happen to be on the territory of the now-former GDR into the constitutional framework of the FRG. Nothing special, happened before with Saarland. If you want to draw a parallel to China I guess you can make one: To the until 1960 situation, with the PRC saying “There’s going to be trouble, ROC, if you move to any other position, it’s the status quo or proper unification no alternative”.

              Also, German public broadcast

              …is not controlled by the government, least of all the federal government which is responsible, or at least co-responsible, for all foreign policy (but religion and culture because there the federal states are completely sovereign). It does reflect the political attitude back then: That the status quo borders were “arbitrary” and until there’s a better set, the old ones still somehow apply even if it doesn’t match the situation on the ground. The switch in 1970 was the broadcasters throwing their hands up in the air.

              And you know what I think the map until 1970 is missing the border to Denmark if I’m not mistaken.

        • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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          16 days ago

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

    • Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      17 days ago

      Given the economic imperialist policies Chinese Communist Party in South America and Africa, let alone the lack of democratic institutions when compared to Taiwan, the CCP’s interest in Taiwan has far less to do with ‘liberating’ it than taking control of its substantial economic base.

  • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
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    17 days ago

    I’m imagining Netanyahu, Xi and Putin having their own IM group where they share these blurbs and react with emojis. “Check out what I’ll publish lol”

    • palordrolap@kbin.run
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      16 days ago

      My gut says there’s grudging admiration between the two blue-suited balding megalomaniacs, but of the two, only Putin talks to Xi often, and even then, only because he has to.

    • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      use the term invasion is if the place is outside the borders of your country.

      The land of the Uyghurs which is called Xinjiang literally means “New Frontier.” Even through language, it’s obvious this land does not “fit” with the rest of China but it does not stop the Chinese government considering it their own land. (FYI the Uyghurs are a Turkic people while most of China speaks Sino-Tibetan Languages).

      • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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        16 days ago

        thats not formal usage though its more like slang and would not be used by political figures in public…oh yeah. its nowadays. dumpsterfire and all. yeah. you have a point.

  • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    17 days ago

    I don’t think he believes what he says for the reasons hes claiming. I think if he’s really set on not invading it’s because hes seen how poorly its working for Russia. China wants Taiwans economy, you cant get that if Taiwan looks like Ukraine before you even get control.

    If Xi is being serious it’s probably because he’s realizing he needs to take Taiwan through economic and diplomatic, and probably clandestine diplomatic means. Weather he has a plan for that remains to be seen.

    • Nobody@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Given Russia’s performance in Ukraine, Iran firing 5% of its total stockpile at Israel and having almost nothing get through modern American air defense, and China’s own review of military readiness that showed glaring flaws and corruption, any plans China may have had to invade Taiwan should be postponed indefinitely.

      Turning local elections in Taiwan in China’s favor in the long term seems like the more viable alternative for reunification.

      • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        16 days ago

        My thoughts exactly. Probably tougher than HK but similar playbook, my guess is a slow long term approach would be the most likely to succeed.

        • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          So they opposite of HK where they rushed in and fucked the whole thing up so badly they lost any chance of ever convincing Taiwan?

          China can’t operate on long time frames, they’re too beholden to the whims of whatever prima donna is chairman.

      • Андрей Быдло@sh.itjust.works
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        16 days ago

        True, even without reunification (what’s for?), China gets more by economical means than it would ever has via invasion. It’s insane production capacity, belt&road schemes, education and science are a caricature of a suntzian wise guy who wins a war without a battle. Reducing themselves to a war (and probably destroying everything they are jealous of in Taiwan in the process) would be embarassingly stupid. I watch their sabblerattling as a play, but I’m yet to see any benefit from it besides upkeeping the status of those not to fuck with.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      And Russia is able to cart in supplies by road and rail. If anything Ukraine is also showing that supply across a 100+ miles of sea will be nearly impossible. The navy does not have to control the waters, they just need to deny the Chinese access to it and that is much easier.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      He’ll take it through political means, by running candidates that support his regime. Then he will put an end to democracy there. Kind of like Hong Kong.

    • rayyy@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      he’s realizing he needs to take Taiwan through economic and diplomatic, and probably clandestine diplomatic means

      Add in psyops programs. They have been a resounding success against UK and the US for Putin.