Lai Ching-te argues the reverse may be true because the Republic of China – the mantle that nationalists carried with them to Taiwan – predates the communist People’s Republic

It is “impossible” for the People’s Republic of China to become Taiwan’s motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island’s president has said.

Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a separatist. He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying the island is a country called the Republic of China that traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution overthrowing the last imperial dynasty.

The Chinese nationalist government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. Mao set up the People’s Republic of China, which continues to claim self-governed Taiwan as its territory.

  • @someguy3
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    7 hours ago

    It’s a Civil war that never ended.

    • @[email protected]
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      217 hours ago

      I haven’t closely followed Taiwanese politics but I’m pretty sure the DPP (his party) is largely supported by the indigenous people

      • Flying SquidM
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        -67 hours ago

        It’s more the “motherland” claim. Most indigenous Americans support the U.S. government. They’ll even sometimes proudly fight for America in the U.S. military. That doesn’t mean they’d appreciate it if Trump or Biden said that the U.S. was the motherland of white people.

        • @[email protected]
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          187 hours ago

          The thing is, he’s directly saying that China isn’t their motherland because their government was born first. He’s saying that although their government used to control China, its home is Taiwan now. The DPP is against the idea of reclaiming the mainland or claiming too much heritage or symbolism from the mainland as they are the pro-independence party in Taiwan

          • Flying SquidM
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            -27 hours ago

            Like I said, I kind of get what he’s saying. I just don’t know that it was put well. Maybe it works better in Chinese and it’s just a translation thing.

            • @[email protected]
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              77 hours ago

              It’s sometimes hard to translate things like this into English well so that would make sense

    • The Octonaut
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      14 hours ago

      Yeah it’s disgraceful that people from the mainland forced out of their homes by war and prejudice have in turn set up a colonial state that oppresses, marginalised and usurped the national status of the people Indigenous to the area. If only they weren’t treated as American allies just so they act as a counterbalance to the regional power.

    • @MicroWaveOP
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      8 hours ago

      Not entirely sure what you’re getting at. Are you suggesting that Taiwanese Indigenous people might have a problem that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is older than the PRC?

  • @[email protected]
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    87 hours ago

    I don’t even understand why anybody would choose for Mao Zedong. Maybe it’s because he had all the smart people killed. And then the few smart people left fled to Taiwan?

    • @BMTea
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      75 hours ago

      I think you’re mixing up Mao with Pol Pot.

    • @Agent641
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      125 hours ago

      Well he did kill a lot of landlords…

      • @[email protected]
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        92 hours ago

        Source: Gapminder, cited as source by the above graph as well

        Funny how much the graph changes when you have more than 1 data point per decade every decade. Almost makes me wonder whether the creator of the above graph was trying to paint a certain picture instead of presenting raw data in a way that makes it easier to grasp, without bias.

        Notice the inflection point where Mao implements the “great leap forward”. Also notice other countries’ similar rates of increasing life expectancy in the graph below, just without the same ravine around 1960.

        I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with (what I think to be) your implicit claim that Mao somehow single-handedly raised China’s life expectancy through the power of communism or whatever. Please do correct me if this wasn’t your implicit claim, and if you we’re either 1) yourself mislead by the graph you shared, or 2) you have some other claim entirely that is somehow supported by said graph.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 hours ago

        Murders not included ofcourse. This just shows the international jump in medical science.

      • v_krishna
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        14 hours ago

        People forget this. Also they forget that until the 90s Taiwan was an authoritarian military state. I’ve been to Taiwan, it’s a beautiful country and the people are wonderful, but it was founded by horrific and brutal men who were rightfully chased out of mainland China (not to mention there were already lots of people living there, who like indigenous people the world around have been made second class citizens in their own lands)

  • @cheese_greater
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    9 hours ago

    Quiet, you!!?!

    Xi “Dwight Scrute” Jinping