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Comment by earthboundkid | Hacker News Reader

Why is this interesting? Taiwan has to compete in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei or whatever. Yeah, any place that China can influence, it makes Taiwan call itself China.

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It is interesting because it exposes Apple, which as a company often tries to present itself as a champion of freedom, and other modern values. Yet as is reaffirmed here (and previously with AppStore etc), when profits are involved it is willing to overlook the most egregious forms of injustice and violence.

Literally every tech company stands up for good causes like BLM and LGBTQ+ rights; but the true measure of courage is when there are consequences involved with taking a stand.

> Literally every tech company stands up for good causes like BLM and LGBTQ+ rights

Well, in the countries where it is good PR to do so. They tend not to show the same face worldwide, in countries where it would not be good PR.

I don’t think you can pass it off as PR when their CEO is out, and publicly supports the cause.

Does he support it publicly? I'm not really aware of anything noteworthy other than when he came out a decade ago. Not saying it's necessary but I wouldn't characterize him as an LGBTQ activist.

He has been in a pride parade in the past and has mentioned it in interviews/tweets. I wouldn't call him an activist at any stretch, but he doesn't hide his support.

So we… expect Apple to break the law in China in order to make some kind of moral stand?

And that moral stand is over the sovereignty of a country?

Even though the US government, with vastly more resources at its disposal and more ability to withstand the consequences of Chinese anger, does not make this stand?

Maybe Apple shouldn't be in China then?

A couple years ago, they removed the VPN apps from the chinese app store, anything after that is nonsense marketing blabla for everyone not living in the US

I don't think Apple ever portrays itself as a champion of freedom.

And even if they did, that ethos does not give them carte blanch to pick and choose which laws they will adhere to.

Taiwan calls itself China. The official name is literally the Republic of China. Both China and Taiwan agree that there is just one China, but disagree about what formal unification would or should look like.

Edit: The USA also agrees that there is one China, at least officially, though it’s not like the US doesn’t like to change its mind frequently. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Communiqué

This is kind of dated view [1]. The median position in Taiwan is something like "change nothing" (status quo). Essentially nobody wants reunification in any realistic manner.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/taiwan-china-politics-identity-inde...

Both East Germany (when it existed) and West Germany were "Germany" and at least theoretically belived their government was the legitimate one for the whole territory, but products made in both were generally distinguished on their labels.

At least from the East German side this was only the case for a short period during the 50s (the idea that there was only "one Germany" - which from the point of view of the GDR and Moscow should of course be a "socialist Germany").

In the 60's and early 70's the GDR dropped this idea and worked towards being recognized as its own souvereign state, and insisted that there are two German states (the GDR and the FRG).

This eventually resulted in the "Basic Treaty" from 1972, and the GDR joining the UNO in 1973 (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Treaty,_1972, or the much more detailed entry in the German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundlagenvertrag)

That isn't the issue here; the requested "Taiwan, China"/"Chinese Taipei" labeling does still distinguish the source.

This is brought up often on discussions about Taiwan and China. To be clear, the vast majority of politicians in Taiwan do not actually believe they wield power over mainland China. That Taiwan still calls itself “Republic of China” is because mainland China has made it clear that a name change would be seen as a Declaration of Independence and a trigger for war.

The situation is akin to someone held hostage at gunpoint telling you they’re fine.

Everyone knows Taiwan is its own country, the US et all merely engage in the "one china" pretense to keep the PRC happy.

Yes, but the own country on the island of Taiwan is called the "Republic of China".

Because it would be a provocation to war to change the name to Taiwan. Politicians in Taiwan have tried to change the name and always chickened out because it’s a dumb reason to trigger an invasion.

The USA officially agrees - which is a critical qualifier when talking about political entities. The USA, colloquially, is miles from agreeing.

The Republic of China is or was the official name. The mainlander terrorists overthrew the legitimate government and that government fled to Taiwan. Some revisionism of history now has mainland China the "legitimate" China all due to Tricky Dicky visiting in 1972. The government of mainland China if full of contradictions.

As I understand it the PRC are also objecting to labelling that says "Republic of China" too, not just Taiwan.

It's interesting because it shows how much influence the CCP has over the American company Apple.

In the EU, Apple posts prices including VAT, just as local regulations require. That's because the EU has this enormous influence over the American company Apple.

Or is it because companies generally tend to follow the law of wherever they operate?

It's not unjust or morally wrong to post prices including VAT, so I have no complaint about Apple doing that. When a foreign country's laws require companies to do things that are unjust or morally wrong, I want companies to choose not to operate there rather than follow them. Similarly, I'd want companies to pull out of Australia rather than backdoor their encryption.

If they were operating in North Korea, should they be leaking the names of anti-Kim Jong-un employees to the authorities as well if that were the law?

Who is claiming that the primary quality of this article is being "interesting"? Unsurprising evils must still be visible, and it is harmful to try to hide them under the pretense that they are not surprising.

If the US is willing to compromise even in a non-military standoff, imagine their willingness in an actual military conflict that emerges in Taiwan.

This is not great news for Taiwan. Besides empty assurances, I am now certain that Taiwan is largely on its own.

No nuclear armed nation is going to fight another nuclear armed major power.

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