Interestingly enough, there were some official Wikipedia decisions on that very topic recently:
CGTN and Global Times were given the lowest ranking short of being spam-blacklisted, and the consensus was Xinhua can't be trusted as a source where the PRC government would have a conflict of interest, but it can be used for more mundane coverage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...
Given Taiwan recognizes China but China doesn't recognize Taiwan, a statement of fact--that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign state--would be deemed "pro Taiwan" by Beijing.
There are forces that want to move away from that de jure reality. But the fact is that that move hasn't happened (yet?).
When it comes to de facto, Beijing "recognizes" Taiwan by allowing travel, communication and business. By Korean standards, China and Taiwan are unified.
I have no dog in this fight, but the HN rules state that you should not downvote a comment only because you disagree -- but, instead, because it does not add value to the discussion or is not constructive.
Just keen to protect HN from downvoting less popular views.
I totally agree with this. Unfortunately HN has gone completely down under now. I get downvoted to oblivion and sometimes even being flagged, every time I say an unpopular opinion, even when I give a full technical explanation to the discussion. I once got downvoted, flagged, and censored out for pointing out un-inclusive language, for example, and another time got downvoted several times for pointing out what I think are very valid privacy issues with Apple's practices.
If I were to make a suggestion, HN should require a reason to hit the downvote button. Otherwise this just amounts to censorship of unpopular opinions.
And in this case it's going to unfortunately turn into a popularity contest fight of up/down arrows between both sides of the Taiwan issue and frankly speaking that's unproductive. I think westerners who haven't studied that aspect of history really should see the historic facts as well as reasons behind why each side has their view. You don't have to agree with both but it's worthwhile understanding the origins in both viewpoints.
UPDATE (9/25 15:14): The downvote army is here again! I personally think I'm contributing to this discussion above, but yet they're still downvoting me.
That's an interesting thought. What if there were an optional drop-down menu that allowed down-voters to provide canned feedback?
Either way, I think you'd enjoy the discussion more if you worried less about voting. Unless you're selling something, the popularity of the sentiment you're expressing isn't especially relevant.
It's just that I think it could be a great platform for controversial intellectual discussions, but the algorithm is designed to promote conformity rather than raising unpopular but well-backed opinions. For example, I've gotten my speech muffled by the algorithm every time I speak out against specific Apple practices, or against the current version of capitalism (not even capitalism as a general idea, which I agree with, just not the current implementation). Somehow saying something against Apple or contemporary American capitalism on HN is just like saying something against the leader in authoritarian regimes; you'll be flagged, beaten (downwvoted), muted, and banned by the community.
I definitely like the drop-down idea. "I disagree" would not be one of the options for downvote. Some of the valid options I can think of are:
- Irrelevant to post
- Irrelevant to parent comment
- Offensive or violent language
- Personal attack
- Scientifically inaccurate
- Too terse / needs elaboration
It is disconcerting to see the popular or establishment view presented with different standards of evidence, sources or logic.
I'd leave "I disagree" as an option in this hypothetical. The down-voting user would have it as a shadow vote, without impacting the comment.
For scientifically inaccurate, I think they should be prompted to reply with a refutation.
Needs elaboration should just open a reply with "Could you please elaborate on..."
Separately, I've had thoughtfully written responses flagged for what is presumably disagreement. So may be the "flag" button needs a dropdown and the downvote button not showing up until you reply would be a good combination solution.
Despite this. both pg and dang have said this is OK.
Edit: Actually, I just went over the guidelines in detail (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and there is no mention of appropriate or inappropriate use of the downvote. Where did you see this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party#P...
But the fact is, the DPP hasn't officially made this move. Not yet at least.
Anyway, my point is that the person I replied to, said that Taiwan recognizes Beijing. I assert that that's officially not the case. I know, de facto situation is different, but in international relations, and when it comes to international law, the de jure reality matters a lot. Official UN procedures follow the de jure reality, not the de facto one.
And this latter is one of the reason why China behaves like a "grammar nazi" on these matters. They have to, if they want to keep the current de jure reality. It's like a company sending tons of cease and desist letters to all people who produce fan content: it's not necessarily because they want to upset fans, but it's because if they fail to enforce, then they lose the trademark.
It seems that otherwise, unless the US militarily supports Taiwan, the PRC doesn't care whether Taiwan is de facto independent as long as they don't declare so.
I wonder what the actual objection said.
China doesn't like it when other people use the name Taiwan. Maybe they should change it to "China Taipei"
EDIT: this is not my opinion, but what I see as reality..
1. Many Mainland Chinese people have the view that Taiwan is illegally occupied ever since the KMT fled there at the end of the civil war. It's as if the Confederates fled to Puerto Rico or Hawaii, still exist to this day, and claim to be the legitimate ruler of all of the US.
Although nowadays fewer people care about this, since China has surpassed Taiwan economically. But it's still a significant portion who cares. So many, that if the CCP lets Taiwan go, CCP's legitimacy will be called into question, and many people will revolt. If it's up to these people, China would have launched an invasion a decade ago.
2. Geographically, Taiwan is a military significant piece of land. The US can set up base there and blockade all China's naval traffic. China wants to prevent this.
Per capita basis Taiwan is much better, but overall PRC is a lot more stronger.
> So many, that if the CCP lets Taiwan go, many people will revolt.
CCP has the gift of being able to control the narrative though, can't they make it seem like a win-win situation for them by doing it as some grand gesture and peace through largesse of their heart.
> Geographically, Taiwan is a military significant piece of land. The US can set up base there and blockade all China's naval traffic.
While I can see the importance of Taiwan as an opening between Japan and Philippines. Can't an enemy power use Japan, SK and Philippines to still blockade from Pacific.
Also, friendly relations with an independent Taiwan might mean it remains in PRC's sphere of influence
Yes China can control the narrative to some extent, and historically they did. For example all of outer Mongolia was ceded to Russia. If you check Taiwan's official claims, you will see that it's much bigger than the People's Republic of China today.
The CCP has a history of ceding land (that is strategically not too valuable) in order to setup peace. I'm guessing that the military significance is the biggest reason why they're not giving up Taiwan.
> The CCP has a history of ceding land (that is strategically not too valuable) in order to setup peace.
This doesn't explain their border differences with India though. For all I can understand only a small part of the western border seems of strategic importance.
This article by the Asia Research Institute (set up by Kishore Mahbubani) has some background on the diplomatic history of this issue: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-kanti-bajpai
Access to the water. The border China would like to control would put the watershed from glaciers on China’s side.
If 'Mississippi' was somehow broken away from the US, the US would spend quite a lot of effort to get it back, even though Mississippi is and of itself, not important.
If one takes a historical view that Taiwan, Tibet, Manchu, S. China Sea 'belong to China' then they will push hard to grab and maintain them.
I agree that pride/hubris (more saving face) is indeed a significant component, but Taiwan has huge strategic military importance. Taiwan declaring itself independent and allowing (say) the US to set up a large military presence there would be unacceptable for China.
The political significance of an independant Taiwan (or not) is 100x any tactical advantage of geography.
S. China sea is actually more important because it's international water, and territory that overlaps with other countries.
Worth noting that the PRC has never controlled Taiwan.
Much in the same way they pressure other countries to ignore the abuses of Uighurs and Tibetans.
1. Convince the DPP to officially declare independence. Not just unofficially flirting with the idea, but officially still claiming all of China.
2. After 1 has happened, convince UN members to recognize Taiwan.
From a legal process point of view, I think 2 cannot happen until 1 is done.
And legally, how do you recognize a country that does not officially recognize itself? The Taiwanese constitution still says it is the Republic of China. The current legal situation is that, by recognizing Taiwan, you are officially saying that the Taiwanese government is the legit ruler of the mainland.
Taiwan is de facto an independent country in every way you could possibly conceive, including having de jure diplomatic relations with a few countries and de facto relations with many more. In international relations, actions matter more than words, and in Taiwan's case, those actions indicate that it's an independent country.
The only reason official declarations stating the obvious haven't been made is due to the threats and coercion conducted by the PRC. The presence of those threats makes the absence of the declarations literally meaningless. It's sort of like being forced to sign a contract under duress.
It was a lot easier to get chaoter status when wikimedia taiwan did it than it is currently.
From the look at things there are some potential future chapters which are at the sub-national level: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters#Chapters_...
In terms of affiliated user groups, they allow people to start them with a variety of justifications, from regional groups, cultural focus groups, etc.
Here's some more information about affiliate groups: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliate...
Personally the way I see it is that there are multiple simultaneous realities of the situation and if you give each region what they want to see, everyone will be happy.
When something is disputed, arguably the most neutral, unbiased way to go about things is to deliver information to each party within the framework that they have established, and technology enables this as a possibility when it used to be cumbersome in the old days.
If Wikimedia wants to assert a position on the Taiwan issue, or politically help Taiwan by supporting its majority viewpoint, then great, I completely understand, though I feel like its fundamental mission would be better accomplished if it did not take sides on any political matters and strive to be the most neutral source of facts in the world.
For example, there exist certain species of birds native to the island of Taiwan. Wikipedia can be a great source of information about those birds. It doesn't need to define what type of political entity Taiwan is in order to deliver great information about those birds; as far as the birds are concerned it's just a huge island.
So in wiki-speak, this view is usually refered to as multiple-points of view, and its an idea people sometimes floated in the early days (i think their was a fork called wikiinfo or something at one point)
Its very different from neutral point of view as understood by wikipedia. The goal of neutrality is to come up with a single consistent narrative that all parties agree is fair and accurate (porportionally). Of course that can be very difficult at times, its more a journey than a destination.
In my mind this is actually the killer feature of wikipedia. Without this we may as well just all host apache web servers or write articles on geocities.
>if Wikimedia wants to assert a position on the Taiwan issue, or politically help Taiwan by supporting its majority viewpoint, then great
Wikimedia does not want to do anything. Wikimedia largely speaking wants to allow some folks in Taiwan to form what is basically a local user group so they can try and talk some museums into uploading photos and maybe have a conference.
The contents of the Taiwan article is a local wikipedia matter, and is not something wikimedia (in whatever sense you mean) should have a say in.
Generally speaking though, wikipedia does not want to support the majority view of anyone, but explain all views proportionally as represented in reliable secondary sources. Of course that can be difficult at times.
> For example, there exist certain species of birds native to the island of Taiwan. Wikipedia can be a great source of information about those birds. It doesn't need to define what type of political entity Taiwan is in order to deliver great information about those birds; as far as the birds are concerned it's just a huge island.
Well yes, but nobody is really fighting about the bird articles
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliate...
Generally speaking it was really easy to become a chapter in the old days, but now you have to be a really big org to get chapter status. So newer things are less likely to be chapters
Er... doesn't "what I see as reality" specifically mean it is an opinion?
So, definitely opinion. ;)
Link to the related webcast. I haven't taken the time to watch it. https://c.connectedviews.com/05/SitePlayer/wipo?session=1095...
So:
It turns out that China looked up the Wikimedia Foundation on Wikipedia.
It compared what Wikipedia said with what was in the Wikimedia Foundation's application documents.
The Wikimedia Foundation put 124 user groups, 39 geographic chapters and 2 thematic organizations on its application form.
The Chinese delegation to WIPO, deciding to trust Wikipedia in this instance, found that Wikipedia stated that the Wikimedia Foundation had 47 user groups, 41 chapters, and 1 thematic organization.
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=维基媒体基金会&oldid=617...
So the first prong of the objection was a formal way of saying "Did this organization lie on its application form?".
The second prong was a vague complaint against unspecified content violating the One China Policy on "the affiliated Web site of the Foundation". This could be the Foundation wiki; Wikimedia Taiwan's own WWW site (http://wikimedia.tw/); the Chinese-language Wikipedia; the English-language Wikipedia; Meta; or even something else entirely. China didn't actually say.
There's some clever chess here. For starters, the Wikimedia Foundation now has to officially state for the record that the Chinese Wikipedia does not provide up-to-date accurate information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Wikipedia#Origin_of_ed...
>pro Taiwan bias in Wikipedia
I have previously seen these baseless accusations of Wikipedia and Reddit being pro-Taiwan and pro-India.
There are tens of thousands of pro-Chinese Leftists in the US and Europe. Just take a look at r/GenZedong and r/Socialism. They are China's main propaganda arm in the West. They are far more organized and agenda-driven than Taiwanese and Indian Internet users. They have completely taken over Wikipedia and the comment section on reddit. Anything even slightly critical of China's government gets accused of being CIA propaganda.
I don’t know why this stuff is allowed to exist.
It's not that wikipedia and reddit are pro-taiwan and pro-india, it's that pro-taiwan and pro-indian propagandists have recently flooded these sites. Also, youtube.
> Just take a look at r/GenZedong and r/Socialism.
Have you tried visiting r/china or any other china related sub which are hysterically anti-china?
> There are tens of thousands of pro-Chinese Leftists in the US and Europe
That's it? A few thousand?
> Anything even slightly critical of China's government gets accused of being CIA propaganda.
Give me a break.
I'm sure there are pro-china groups on social media. But there is a hell of a lot more anti-china groups. Go to most china-related thread on reddit I can guarantee you that the anti-china propagandists outnumber the pro-china propagandists 10-1. You aren't doing yourself and the anti-china propagandists any favors by playing the victim here. Especially when your claims are so obviously false.
I didn't encountered many, to be honest. There are anti-CCP groups, which is something different. Also, being anti-ccp and criticise their human rights violations doesnt make you a "propagandist".
Ah yes. "CCP". A wonderful new propaganda term that suddenly sprung out of nowhere. What happened to chinazi or the myriad other propaganda terms you guys used? There are certainly a lot of "anti-china", I mean "anti-ccp", propaganda all over social media suddenly.
> Also, being anti-ccp and criticise their human rights violations doesnt make you a "propagandist".
Sure. But most of those who are "anti-china" and criticize their human rights violations are propagandists. Actually, I'd say almost all of them are propagandists. Especially on reddit and other social media platforms.
This is apparent to anyone who has used reddit, youtube, etc. To claim the "anti-china" group is the victim, as the throwaway account claimed, is absurd. It's a lie like most of the anti-china propaganda on social media. But that's the business you guys are in right?