Monday 10 October 2022

Xi should be big enough to let Taiwan go

 Today Taiwan has been celebrating her unique identity distinct from mainland China. A liberal democracy as opposed to the absolutist state over the water, it is not surprising that more and more of her inhabitants identify themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, even though many are descendants of the rump Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek and its followers. (For an authoritative modern history of the situation, see this Atlantic article.)

It seems to me that the present attitudes of the US military and the Chinese state are bound to lead to a conflict which, even if it does not draw in Japan and the two states in Korea, will impoverish the world, since so much of high-technology manufacturing is concentrated in the region. Far better to appear magnanimous and, from her eminence as one of, if not the, leading economy in the world, relinquish China's claim to be the de jure rulers of the island. The claim could be replaced by a binding treaty recognising their common interests. 

President Xi is surely taking note of a potential parallel in Ukraine where Putin is attempting to reclaim a former part of the Russian empire. The "special military operation" is draining the resources of both states and has reduced a vital supply of grain to the rest of the world. Letting Taiwan go would also burnish China's claim to be the enemy of colonialism on the world stage.

 

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