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Comment by imjustsaying | Hacker News Reader

>The world’s current and next innovations depend on a single country: Taiwan. It’s probably one country you might never hear about, or perhaps confuse with its neighbor, Thailand, or even think it’s a part of China.

>I’ve been living in Taiwan for 3+ years, and am baffled that I never pay attention to semiconductors.

I can't imagine how baffled he's going to be when he discovers Taiwan considers itself part of China.

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This is misleading. The two dominant parties are the KMT, the descendants of the post civil war military dictatorship that wants political union with the People's Republic of China, and the DPP, which wants to preserve Taiwan's independence as its own liberal democratic nation.

The DPP has won the last 2 elections, so it is fair to say that more Taiwanese believe Taiwan is an independent nation than not.

To a large degree, KMT supporters don’t even want unification. They’re happy with a de facto independent ROC. Only a disappearing fringe consider themselves to be a province of China in 2021.

Taiwan has really changed rapidly in this millenium but the average Western perception of its politics seems locked in the 1970s.

Afaik Taiwan considers (or considered) itself to _be_ China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan,_China#Background_and_a...

Taiwan is split politically on the issue of whether or not it is a part of China or a unique independent nation.

It is also a status quo not really worth rattling at the moment, since all indications are that when Taiwan changes its mind the PRC will start treating it like a breakaway province and start the invasion.

That’s not what GP means. He means they consider themselves to be the “true” China and the “true” ruling faction of China.

That's not what I mean. The political party that won the last 2 elections, DPP, disagrees with both of your points. They believe the Taiwan government is "true" Taiwan and People's Republic of China is "true" China, and their is no overlap because Taiwan and China are separate, independent nation-states. It's the minority party, KMT, that maintains, along with the PRC, that Mainland China and Taiwan are inseparable constituents of the same "Chinese motherland."

Maybe back in the 70s. I have KMT friends who openly say that there’s no likelihood of unification with mainland China. For the most part they like the status quo, they love their Chinese cultural heritage, and don’t really care that it’s confusing for the rest of the world as to whether they are Taiwan or ROC.

The reason that ROC still de jure claims 20th century territory (including Mongolia) is because redrawing the borders would upset the status quo and signal independence to PRC which is a red line for missile attack. In every practical way, the Taiwan province has been streamlined away and the ROC _is_ Taiwan.

KMT certainly for a time nursed hopes that eventually they will "retake" mainland, atleast during the time that CKS was in control.

CKS looked down on the possibility of "settling" for Taiwan alone.

Subsequent ROC/Taiwanese governments have not renounced that line of thinking. Even DPP officialy endorses "Status Quo".

> Taiwan considers itself part of China.

China, not the CCP. They view themselves as the rightful leadership party.

This is very historical though. When polled on whether Taiwan would want to become part of China, remain independent, or become part of the US (!), the majority wants US Statehood.

I'll go look up sources and cite them in just a bit.

Edit: Wikipedia cites https://web.archive.org/web/20090326142909/http://www.tvbs.c...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_state

Wouldn't be surprised. Taiwan only exists as an independent entity because of American actions in Asia.

Yet it was American actions that handed over Taiwan's seat in UN and Security Council to PRC.

Yep, at the end of the day the whole fiasco between Taiwan and the PRC isn't really about Taiwan. It's about US-PRC relations and who gets the final word in Asia. Taiwan is just a game piece.

Assuming the respondents were not answering in jest, the odds of this ever happening round to 0.

The blog post seems to have good logic reasoning regards semiconductors, but it is wired to open with statements that involves political views.

I think you have it backwards; China considers Taiwan to be part of China. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-taiwan-relations

The Cross-Strait issue is explicitly mentioned in the preamble of the PRC'S constitution.

>Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the lofty duty of the entire Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan, to accomplish the great task of reunifying the motherland.

http://en.people.cn/constitution/constitution.html

The current govt of Taiwan held the China seat on the UN Security Council until 1979. The history on this issue is complex.

Taiwan also claims the entire mainland as their territory, and KMT especially continuing to claim Taiwan as the "true" China.

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