Two new English words to learn:
irredentism
revanchism
Both of these ideologies are part of the driving force of China's attempts at annexing Taiwan as well as its claims to territories of other nations. (A similar thing is driving part of Russia's foreign policy these days.)
What this government in China needs to relearn is that the Manchu Empire was not Chinese. If they want to rebuild the territory of the Manchu Empire, perhaps they should return to wearing the cue and also speaking and writing in the Manchu Language as the language of government.
But China is more greedy than simply reclaiming supposedly lost territory, China demands all of Taiwan, not simply the western half of the island that the Manchu Empire nominally controlled.
We are thankful that Japan is not irredentist or revanchist. But then again, Japan is a free democracy. In this era of history, democracies tend to be peaceful instead of expansionist. The authoritarian dictatorships tend to seek war to seize territory by violence.
5 comments:
What country has troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and now contemplating to attack Iran?
The above post by anonymous # 1 makes a logical fallacy by means of a faulty comparison -- apples to oranges. Whether one agrees with it or not, the U.S. policy in the Middle East is a completely different issue. Notice that the U.S. is not trying to annex any of these countries or say that because there are ethnic bonds, that they should be re-united to the U.S. motherland. One may disagree with the U.S. policy, but that policy is based on the idea of helping to nurture democratic institutions in these nations, and them remaining their own countries. If China wished that for Taiwan -- for Taiwan to remain an independent country, then the comparison with the U.S. could be made, and the words revanchism and irrendentism would no longer be descriptive of China.
An appropriate apples-to-apples comparison with China trying to annex Taiwan would be Hitler's Nazi Germany trying to annex any ethnic Germanic-heritage nation -- including Austria, all of northern-Europe and even England.
If Taiwan opts for formal independence then we should all prepare for war.
And that includes our American and British friends here who loves Taiwan.
Talking about Taiwan Democracy Movement is cool but if it's not backed by action then it's a sham and a shame.
If people are given a choice to go biking in Ilan and enjoy the mountain views or go to war with China and be ready to die for Taiwan what do you think will be their answer?
Would they prefer to teach english ( no questions asked) and enjoy their lives with their beautiful wives here or
exchange their pen for the rifle?
If Taiwan declares independence it will be our own fight and we should not expect them 'educators' who loves the Dalai and Rebiya to join us in the fox hole.
Masalu, that is a false choice.
"If China would leave Taiwan alone, the Taiwanese would never chose to invade China or go to war with China.
The problem is, there is no choice between peace and war.
Peace is not the absence of war, but instead the presence of justice.
China taking over Taiwan would take away peace, democracy and human rights. China taking Taiwan would be an injustice.
So the choice is between slavery or fighting for freedom -- currently in non-military ways but perhaps one day with weapons of war.
Unfortunately many in Taiwan delude themselves into thinking that being annexed by China is better than fighting for their freedom. People from many other countries share the same delusion about China and Taiwan.
So did Neville Chamberlain regarding Nazi Germany.
Allowing China to annex Taiwan will lead to more war in the future as China's aggressive expansionism and militant nationalism and leninist imperialism is felt by other neighboring countries, and not just ones on the border.
Not only this, but the entire world would be affected as other brutish authoritarian regimes are emboldened by the lack of consequences over China's actions. Many other wars would be started as these regimes think they can get away with anything with impunity." - JL
Post a Comment