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Comment by Mountain_Skies | Hacker News Reader

China would very much prefer that Taiwan ask to reunite with the mainland. Forcing them back one day might be in the cards but setting the conditions to where Taiwan sees being part of China as being the better option than relying on the United States for its safety is what China would like to happen. Finding ways to drive wedges between the US and Taiwan is a part of this strategy.

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Taiwan might prefer that China ask's to reunite with them? Commit to a free democracy? Didn't think so...

> ways to drive wedges between the US and Taiwan is a part of this strategy.

If that is the strategy, then it is failing.

Taiwan is more anti-unification than it has ever been, and the people there already consider themselves to be an independent country.

They consider themselves China actually. So maybe the Republic of China would prefer that the People's Republic of China ask to reunite with them.

KMT no longer runs Taiwan. This idea is outdated.

No, they really don't.

The ruling party of Taiwan has already made statements that they already consider themselves to be independent from China.

US has no interest in being beholden to TSMC in the long-term. once that dependency is removed the only reason from a realist perspective to support Taiwan is to provoke Chinese violence, which hopefully never happens.

Not so, AFAIK. It is equally as much about free trade in the South China Sea.

Fixating on TSMC is for myopic tech geeks. Yes, it's important, but not nearly as important in the grand scheme of things as:

- A thriving Chinese democracy showing the mainland that no, they are not intrinsically incompatible with freedom.

- The credibility of the US as an ally to other Asian countries.

- Taiwan's strategic location.

I'd counter with your opinion being exceedingly naive.. "thriving" is quite generous considering their economy and reliance on foreign powers. And culturally they're making the same mistake as Hong Kong in alienating mainlanders.

don't think we have reconcilable opinions on US motivations but hey I'll gladly be wrong as long as there's no war

> "thriving" is quite generous considering their economy

https://www.statista.com/statistics/727592/gross-domestic-pr...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263775/gross-domestic-pr...

> and reliance on foreign powers

growth driven largely by reliance on guess who, mainland China. Who accounts for >40% of Taiwan's exports.

Maybe I phrased things poorly but the point is that mainlanders do not see much to envy. how do you propose that changes exactly?

> mainlanders do not see much to envy

This is a classic case of citation needed.

It's easy enough to do for the reverse, i.e. that the Taiwanese are not overly enthused by the prospect of "reunification":

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2021/12/30/2...

Taiwan has an HDI of .916 and a Gini of 34. China has an HDI of .761 and a Gini of 47. That's quite a gap.

Also, they're only "reliant" on foreign powers insofar as they're under threat. Sri Lanka is not "reliant" on foreign powers because India is not threatening them.

uh... Taiwan GDP is in roughly 90 percentile in the world.

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