A Nugget of Truth about China and Taiwan

A broader view of the China-Taiwan-U.S. situation.

Readership: Current residents of North America, i.e. the United States of America; Westerners; Those from China or Taiwan;
Reader’s Note: Today is a national holiday in Taiwan.
Length: 1,200 words
Reading Time: 4 minutes

More emails…

A reader directed me to this article from Andrew Anglin at The Unz Review, What About China, Then? (2021 October 5). He wrote,

“What Anglin says about China is rather what I suspected about what they are trying to do, and why. They are no real threat to the US, for the most part. And I rather doubt the folks where you live are very worried about reunification in the way it’s portrayed here. I sometimes wonder how the US became the Twilight Zone.”

Yeah. This article seems pretty accurate from the Asian perspective, and for those statements concerning Taiwan, it’s not too far off, at least.

Here’s an excerpt from Anglin’s piece that I found amusing.

“What will not happen: the Chinese will not invade America to enslave people in communism with their social credit system. If you think that the Chinese want to invade America and enslave people, then you basically need to accept that you just don’t really have any idea what is going on. Why would the Chinese want to invade and enslave Americans? Just to be mean? Do Chinese people strike you as that emotional, that they would waste huge amounts of resources in order to engage in an act of geopolitical meanness? The entire Chinese mindset, and their entire marketing strategy as a superpower, is that they don’t invade countries, and instead trade with countries and invest in countries’ infrastructure.”

Yeah, recasting the Chinese as world conquering Mongolian marauders is a drill bit of projection (think about that for a moment), similar to how the Germans were recast as barbaric Huns in WW1. More fear mongering fake news to watch out for. If the Chinese ever come to dominate the U.S., it will be through financial means of control.

Oh wait, they’ve already done that!

New York Stock Exchange, New York City — May 10, 2019.

Here’s another passage that strikes me as spot on.

“Though it is clear that the globalist agenda hinges on regime change in China, that rampant anti-Chinese propaganda abounds, and that the entire political and military apparatus in Washington supports using the military to “defend Taiwan,” the US plan to destroy the CCP is completely unclear.”

Isn’t it interesting that the U.S. is presumed to be the long arm of the globalist PTB?

“Right now, China is finally standing up and pushing back against this bullying. If they decided to “invade” Taiwan, the Taiwanese military would put up less of a fight than the Afghan military. Americans have no idea what is going on in Taiwan. I would be surprised if even one soldier fired a shot if the CCP military landed in Taipei, and at least 40% of the people would openly greet them as liberators. The people who are still against reunification in theory would just shrug, and carry on with their day.”

I believe this hypothetical is more true than not. Taiwan carried political and philosophical solidarity with Hong Kong during the crackdown back in June of this year, but little has been done about that, except to welcome disgruntled wealthy Hong Kongers looking for another Chinese cultural domain with a strong economy in which to take up residence. Property values in Taiwan have skyrocketed since then, and local landowners are quite happy about that.

“No one in Taiwan even understands the concept of the mainland “taking their freedoms.” No one thinks that anything substantial that affects them personally would change, other than gays and maybe some feminist women.”

In Taiwan, there is a lot more cohesive unity and social currency than in America. As a result, people’s idea of “freedom” is not the same as the American concept. In Taiwan, freedom means not being chained down like a wild animal or locked up in prison, but for those people who are in prison, they probably deserve to be. So what’s the fuss? Most Taiwanese can’t understand why Americans are so flagrant about “defending freedom”. Instead, the rhetoric is seen for what it is — mythological hype used to obscure other motives and justify military aggression.

“A lot of people want the CCP to come in and ban gay marriage. The US forcing the gay marriage thing really rustled a lot of people.”

A lot of people in Taiwan want to ban gay marriage, that’s true, but they aren’t expecting the CCP to do it. News sources have reported that “60% of Taiwanese are accepting of gay marriage”, and so on, but the use of the descriptors (e.g. “accepting of…”, “believe that…”, “say that…”) is misleading. People will be agreeable when asked, but it’s not how they really view the world, nor would they remain complacent if the person in question was their own family member. Here, “acceptance” means those who are against gay marriage have the attitude of, “Oh yes… heh… let them do their thing. They’ll learn sooner or later that it’s a dead end, and they’ll have nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, that has nothing to do with me, so kindly leave me out of it. I have my own fantastic life to live.” In other words, those gays who are outspoken are socially avoided and rejected from the social currency. This attitude has traction because about 70% of the population feels this way. We could also say Taiwanese are “tolerant”, but it’s different from the American concept of tolerance.

Next, Anglin locks in on the general sentiment of the Taiwanese — that life and business should not be disrupted by political ideologies and sentiments that are peripheral to daily life.

“Imagine the internet being flooded with videos of PRC troops landing in Taiwan and people either smiling and waving or just going about their business. Imagine the female president of Taiwan giving a public statement apologizing to the Chinese people for “disrespectful behaviors and mean-spirited actions.” Chuck Schumer and Ben Sasse could call a bipartisan press conference to release secret satellite photos of buildings in Taiwan that look shockingly similar to the infamous Hitler steam chambers. They could bring in the daughter of the Taiwanese ambassador to cry and say she saw CCP soldiers eating babies. But the jig would be up.”

A clash of two ideological worlds! Pass me the popcorn.

Seriously, the fear of violence is being used to stoke unnecessary hostility and resentment. Code words, “Freedom and Democracy” are abstract and illusory. Readers need to be aware of this.

The Chinese just want to make money and enjoy their lives and families. The average person in Taiwan is the same way. Meanwhile in America, civil discord is rife, elections are in disarray, and the average American is worried about misogyny, wearing masks, and using pronouns correctly.

Where’s the “freedom and democracy”?

Related

• Σ Frame: The elephant in the room is the canary in the coalmine (2020-11-02)
• Aljazeera: Is China really about to invade Taiwan? (2021-04-14)
• Taipei Times: Military tensions worst in 40 years: Chiu (2021-10-07)