Israel is being the very opposite of a force for stability in the region, which isn’t going to help the Petro-Dollar.

Israel being a destabilizing force gives the US leverage over the oil rich nations of the region. That’s why Israel is important for the petrodollar. I’m also not sure the US currently has a way to maintain its global economic dominance without the petrodollar. That’s in part why I think you see the US doubling down on support for Israel even in a context where doing so is increasingly risky.

She would likely gain voters because she would be distinguishing herself from Biden who remains deeply unpopular.

China has plenty of right wingers and social conservatives living there. They just can’t organize for their beliefs outside of the existing political structures.

There’s no diplomatic solution if the US decides there’s none to be had and doesn’t even try. Diplomacy fails at times but putting in a serious effort to resolve conflicts peacefully is almost always preferable to the hardships of war. Even if you think the PRC is belligerent it’s worth actually trying.

That’s why Taiwanese people prefer maintaining the status quo. To them it seems like the best of the bad options available to them as long as they have no control over what the PRC or US does.

Im seriously trying to work with you here. It’s very clear when I said “full autonomy” I did not mean only a “high degree of autonomy” as was the case with Hong Kong. Please listen to what I said and don’t get side tracked by imagining how a made up solution that you invented is doomed.

Hong Kong doesn’t have full political autonomy. It never did, not under the British nor under the PRC. How’s that at all relevant to what I said?

That’s not how diplomacy works. You can’t just declare the outcome you want and expect the PRC to abide by it when they have no incentive to. The PRC also likely believes that if they ever recognized Taiwan as independent the US would immediately look to set up military bases on Kinmen and other islands Taiwan controls. They rightly see that as massive threat to their ability to trade if the US ever decided to try and enforce a blockade.

Don’t doubt that the US has always wanted to exert military pressure on the PRC. It’s why the US supported Chiang Kai-shek’s militarily and then protected his retreat to Taiwan with the US navy. It’s why they continued to support the KMT and the ROC as the legitimate government of China even as they were massacring the indigenous people’s of Taiwan. The Korean War was also viewed by the PRC as an extension of US aggression against its regional security. They weren’t really wrong either. Douglas MacArthur famously wanted to go so far as to nuke the PRC into submission during the Korean War. US-PRC relations only really got better after the Soviet-Sino split when the US saw they could use the PRC as an instrument against the USSR. However, even today the US aims to maintain military supremacy in the region and so it continues its military first approach towards the situation with Taiwan. The ROC’s transition to a liberal democracy means nothing to them.

The PRC looks at that all and it just confirms their fears about the US. If you wanted an actually diplomatic solution it would almost certainly require that the US military is excluded from Taiwanese land. With that, I’d be willing to bet the PRC would agree to a solution which maintains the pretext of “one China” under the guise of an economic union even as Taiwan maintains full political autonomy. The reality is though that neither the US nor the current Taiwanese government have given any indication that’s a negotiation they’re willing to have. As such, tensions rise and the people of Taiwan are left to wonder if war is coming without having any serious ability to stop it.

It’s not black and white like that! Saying Taiwan is pro US is incredibly reductive. It’s true that the majority of Taiwanese people welcome US support. The majority of them also think that the military first way in which the US is supporting them is going to push Taiwan towards war, something they do not want. A majority also voted for parties that prefer to find diplomatic solutions to the tensions with the PRC.

Also, Taiwan doesn’t have to trust the PRC to for a diplomatic solution to be possible. Rarely is diplomacy solely based on trust. I genuinely believe they could find some sort of compromise that is amenable to all parties. However both Taiwan’s current president, elected with only a plurality of the vote, and the US are not working to find a permanent diplomatic solution and are therefore escalating tensions against the will and interests of the Taiwanese populace. This isn’t good for anyone except the US which wants to use Taiwan as a pawn to contain its adversary, the PRC.

Well the majority of people in Taiwan are not happy with the US’s military first approach and would in fact prefer diplomacy. You can’t just foreclose the possibility of diplomacy because of your preconceived expectations that the PRC is intransigent. You can’t just assume that will accept nothing less than the political subjugation of Taiwan. Doing that just makes war a more likely outcome and the people of Taiwan seem to understand that. The US is just pushing for a military forward strategy because it serves their interests and not the interests of the Taiwanese people.

I suggest you admit that the age of any particular government is irrelevant to its legitimacy before defending fascists. It’s not that hard.

Chiang Kai-shek’s claim to a legitimate ROC government are tenuous at best. He basically used his position to launch a right wing coup against the unity government and attempted to purge it of all left wing elements. Claiming legitimacy when you’ve basically used force to try and take full control over a government is par for the course for fascism. That’s why I don’t believe the CPC demonizes the ROC prior to Chiang Kai-shek. They still holds Sun Yat-sen, a key founder of the ROC, in high regard.

Also, IIRC most of the dissidents in Taiwan were mostly people who lived there or who were indigenous to the Island prior to the KMTs arrival. As such, the white terror did involve suppression of a Taiwanese ethnic identity.

I’m not so sure. A majority of people polled in Taiwan disagreed with the US’s approach of a military forward strategy of ensuring Taiwan’s political independence. I believe the reasons the US has not pursued a diplomatic solution is largely because it wouldn’t serve their geopolitical interests. By pursuing a militaristic strategy, they’ve escalated the stakes at the expense of the Taiwanese people and I think Taiwanese people generally understand that.

I’m not sure you want to stake the validity of Taiwan’s independence on the fact that Chiang Kai-shek’s fascist dictatorship predates the PRC. lol

I don’t think you’re naive for having that perspective. I think a lot of Taiwanese people likely feel the same way. A majority of voters in Taiwan voted for parties that want to try and reduce tensions diplomatically. They’re stuck between a rock and hard place though because first past the post voting meant a party more aligned with the US won the presidency. Unfortunately for Taiwan, it’s in the US’s geopolitical interest to act as if there are no diplomatic solutions to tensions between with the mainland. As such, I think the majority of the people in all the countries involved lose out.

It’s just not true to say that China is relying on copying other’s technology anymore. In the last decade, they’ve caught up and are now at the cutting edge of research in many fields. I think this shift is catching a lot of people off guard including many western journalists and pundits.

At the very least she needs to publicly commits to ending arms shipments to Israel if elected. Barring that there is no reason to expect her policy to be any different from Biden’s.

The democrats are 100% supporting genocide and anyone trying to sweep that under the rug is also supporting genocide. Trump is obviously not better for Palestinians but how much worse can it possible get? It’s genocide for fucks sake. The choice is between a quick death or an even faster death for the Palestinian people. In either case, they die! Supporting one over the other is not a choice at all. Both options here are unacceptable to anyone with any sense of moral clarity.

The FT is actually a tad bit more reliable than more mainstream outlets like WaPo or the NYT. It’s targeted towards people in finance who want more matter of fact reporting and fewer opinion pieces.

I think you underestimate just how many people are in China and how much development actually needs to happen in order to meet their needs. The urbanization rate of China is still lower than most developed nations despite the massive amounts of construction they’ve done in recent years.

Why would I lie and why does what I said make you so angry?