Voters spurned Beijing’s repeated calls not to vote for Lai, delivering a comfortable victory for a man China’s ruling Communist Party sees as a dangerous separatist.
Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vowed to defend the island from China’s “intimidation” and on Sunday the island’s foreign ministry told Beijing to accept the result.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Beijing authorities to respect the election results, face reality and give up suppressing Taiwan in order for positive cross-strait interactions to return to the right track,” it said in a statement.
Yes I get it totally. I was there myself and it is indeed a wonderful place to visit. My friend lived there at the time and showed me around. I particularly loved the markets with all the wonderful electronic components. Though I believe most of that has moved to Shenzen these days, I was there two decades ago when Taiwan was a huge manufacturing hub. As far as I know it’s now more of a high-end semiconductor specialist.
What also suprised me is how Western Taipei felt. If everything weren’t in Chinese it could have been a western city (albeit with a lot more motorscooters :P ). And the whole situation with China doesn’t really seem to be a big ‘thing’ there. They are already deciding their own future and that’s not really up for discussion. This issue seems to be playing more in the global media than on the ground.
I don’t think a war will happen either. China is way too calculated for that. The CCP thinks in decade-long plans with subtle entanglement and exploitative loans, that’s also their MO in Africa. Not a shooting war.
Well, Chinese cities will seem western and modern to you as well. I have family in China also. The media twists everything that’s happening and well, I’m sick of it. I guess in some ways this is just me acting out.
My biggest issue is whenever USA has beef with China for God knows what, Taiwan gets dragged into whatever is going on. Leave us alone, that’s all I want. In this case it’s semiconductors.
The first Taiwan strait crisis was because USA wanted to beat up on China for the Korean war. Second crisis was a continuation of the first one.
The third Taiwan strait crisis was similar to Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
So from my personal point of view, it’s constantly the US stirring up trouble. Not everyone in Taiwan shares my views on this stuff. I’m at this point only talking what I believe.
But we all tend to agree to just keep our freedoms and the status quo.
*Edit I should add I dislike both China and the US and think they’re bullies. They’re bullies who bully each other and uses Taiwan as a flashpoint.
Thanks for your insights, it’s very interesting hearing the perspective from someone who is actually living there. I can imagine you feel used in this conflict.
True, I know, but I don’t think they did as much when I was in Taiwan 20+ years ago.