Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China

The news media needs to stop using the word "reunify" to refer to the PRC's threatened imperial conquest of an island they've never controlled.

- If they're using a false term but quoting someone they should use quotes:
  Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will "reunify" Taiwan with China
- report what is true and verifiable
  if they did that there wouldnt be much news, a lot fewer journalists, less jobs overall, and much less advertising revenue.
  never gonna happen
- The nation wasn't developed by the people who escaped. That's an ahistorical way of framing the issue
  Taiwan was developed by the overthrown proto-fascist military junta who just lost the civil war. After taking the island, they didn't tell the people of Taiwan that the war had been over and they were no longer China until 1991. The first labor laws outlawing slavery were introduced to the people of Taiwan in 2006. The people of Taiwan still consider themselves China (it is afterall the name they go by, not Taiwan) and full Taiwanese independence is still a minority held belief on the actual island.
  Just to be clear, I am a supporter of their independence, but this is a very messy situation in which the political party who comrade the country is the same fascist party who lost the war in the first place and still maintains to the UN that they are the legitimate government of the mainland. Full separation is convenient for the West, but neither side actually wants that, they just don't want to be ruled by either fascists or communists, and I think that is incredibly fair for all people actually involved to want.
of an island they've never controlled.
Oh boy this might get me downvoted. Saying the Communist Party never controlled it is a tautology. That's what happens when there's a civil war that turns into a stalemate: one side does not control the land of the other side. So of course the Communist side never controlled it. This is ducking the nuance of what the actual situation is, that there was a civil war that never ended.
- Even before that Taiwan did not belong to the rest of China.
  There were some settlers from the main land, but the indigenous population always controlled most of the island and the Chinese settlers were careful not to antagonize them.
  This lasted for hundreds of years, pretty much until a brief period at the end of the 19th century when the Chinese government decided to send troops to brutally subjugate the indigenous population, only to shortly after lose control of Taiwan to the Japanese.
- It's a historical fact but how is it a tautology? Territory can change hands during a civil war as evidenced by the RoC no longer controlling China. Unless I'm misunderstanding something. Either way I don't think that changes the point, if that's a tautology then claiming that it can be reunified is a contradiction.

If they invade, won't all the chip fabrication places just blow all their shit up and wipe systems? Pretty sure TSMC said that was the plan.

Doesn't seem like they'll be able to capture a whole lot aside from land and that will come at a pretty steep cost I'd imagine.

I heard about that too. The technology produced there is too valuable to be left to invaders.
The chip thing is definitely an issue. However, even if they didn't get any chip tech or factories, they still get the island. Militarily speaking, the situation is similar to Cuba and US during the Cold War. Taking control of the island will grant them more military security. Additionally, it will grant them control over the shipping lanes in the surroundings waters, which are heavily used for international trade.
The US needs it for trade/their economy. China needs it to protect itself and gain more economic power. For these reasons, it makes sense for both China and the US to be heavily interested in controlling Taiwan. Personally, I really don't see a likely solution to avoiding military conflict unless the powers of the two sides figure out how to resolve their antagonism, which I think is unlikely without a change in Chinese leadership.
- Militarily speaking, the situation is similar to Cuba and US during the Cold War. Taking control of the island will grant them more military security.
  I don't really know if that makes a whole bunch of sense..... The only country with the capabilities of attacking China is the US. The only real provocation that may spark that military conflict is an attack on Taiwan or South Korea.
  Taiwan isn't even that advantageous of a location for an invasion either way, the strait of Formosa would be a death trap for any amphibious landing. The most militarily important region for China is and always has been the Korean peninsula.
  I think Chinas main motivation is that Taiwan disrupts their plans to completely control trade routes in the South China sea. Once the 9 dash line is under control and expanded to include the territorial waters of Taiwan, China will have a defacto monopoly on trade for most of eastern Asia.
The land is most of what they want. Taiwan is militarily strategic land, it essentially blocks all access to the Pacific.
Thing is, that would only bring them to parity for the current gen, which they would instantly fall behind on having to start everything up again and train or force people into running the modern nodes.
These fabs (and pretty much ALL fabs) depend on tech to run their processes and make their chips, which isn't made in Taiwan.
If they do it for the silicon, they'll also need to take a good chunk of West Europe.
Would it set the West back a bit? Yes, but not all that much. There are non Eastern fabs up to date and the people in Taiwan trained to operate bulk fabs are probably on a shortlist for extraction targets too.
Even just destroying the competition makes their stuff much more valuable.
- TSMC just finished building a factory in the US mainland.
That's a good threat if plausible.
That's probably not a good plan, however. What you gonna do after the blowing up the plant? Emigrate, maybe, but for those who'll stay: Congratulations, you have just blown up your job, your life and any bargaining chip you ever had.
They moved TSMC production facilities to Phoenix, Arizona. It's slated to open in 2025.
- They didn't move them, they're just building new fabrication plants here so we don't have to depend on threatened foreign land for the production. https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/2977
  Also SMIC (China's chip manufacturer) is now also producing 7nm chips, even though they were sanctioned in 2020. That means they either had a breakthrough in the process or they obtained and were able to repair and operate/reverse engineer the incredibly complex TSMC fabs.
- Except they have problems finding workers. 3rd world Americans aren't cut out for the jobs it seems like.
- More info on TSMC from an AI chip manufacturing perspective: https://youtu.be/AJGrdtKT3LM?si=M-3EWWOPcIXX8vgv
- [Curb Your Enthusiasm closing credits song plays]

"Re-unify" is dipshit-speak for invade, pillage and crush.. for anyone wondering.

Reunification of Germany was entirely nonviolent.
- Yeah but they actually both wanted it.
  Taiwan, judging from the enormous amounts of military material it has invested in, doesn't really want to be friends with china, let alone be conquered by it
- And Russia is trying reunification with Ukraine. What's your point?
- Were the people saying they were going to reunify dipshits in that case?
- Right, you're saying that in hindsight.
  When a tyrannous dictator preaches reunification as a descriptor when outlining their future plans the context changes a bit. Hope that helps :)

"Reunify". Just like Putin tries to reunify Ukraine with Russland... Strange how one is called Invasion and the other Reunifying

This is xi calling it reunification. It's just your average land grab invasion based off "but 300 years ago we successfully conquered if and had it for almost a century so we have the right to conquer it again!"
- But if you're israel and say GOD gave you that land thousands of years ago, then here's $100+ billion in addition to the billions already given annually to you to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing.

A. Xi said they would prefer to do it peacefully.

B. Autocratic regimes routinely define "peacefully" as a coup or overnight invasion.

C. Xi specifically set an atmosphere of strategic uncertainty by saying a time "hadn't been decided".

That tells me they've given up on winning elections in Taiwan. If they're scheduling it then it's not on Taiwan's election schedule. Ergo, definitely not peacefully in democratic terms.

Well it will be interesting at least.

Well it will be interesting at least.
As in "May you live in interesting times?"
- Ding ding ding, we have a winner. Your prize options are nuclear incineration during Friday rush hour or cake.
I suspect this will happen during USAs election.... you know when the world stops existing for a few days.
- Few days. Months!!!
- Well the Russians largely succeeded with the Olympics. So that's a possibility too.

Someone said after Russia's military was shown to be a farce, that if they were China they'd be shitting their pants and immediately launch an investigation into how good their military actually is.

China has the advantage of actually having enough people to do the meat for the grinder approach though.
- China's big problem is what they offer internationally is cheap labor and they're going through a population collapse now, like other countries that ascend economically, people have fewer kids and younger workers want better salaries and conditions, (understandably so!) This combined with the US's trade war with them has caused international companies to move a lot of production to other impoverished nations like Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Mexico, among others instead of to China. China's economic miracle was because of this large pool of population that is vanishing. Sacrificing soldiers of reproductive age would accelerate this problem.
- True but that doesn't work too well to invade an island.
- Not for long. China is on path to have the same demographics crisis as Russia.
- Chinese central command wouldn't have the power to push such an approach, their army has a very decentralised structure due to its partisan roots.

ROC is gonna take back the mainland?

You mean West Taiwan?
- Glory to Taiwan and their West Taiwan acquisition project!

Take the hint Xi, she's just not into you.

It's wild how they're still obsessed with Taiwan, despite CCP being recognized as China for many decades now. I wonder how much of this is elderly people who still consider the civil war unfinished and how much is strategic. It seems like invading would not be in China's interest. Perhaps they want to do it before their demographic population collapse occurs.

It’s a Chinese thing. PRC and ROC (officially) both see “China” as including the “province” of Taiwan.
Part of it is brainwashing on the PRC side - they are taught from elementary school that Taiwan is a part of China. Part of it is ROC stubborness. It’s even a political issue within Taiwan. While the younger generation generally sees Taiwan as an independent country, the KMT and the older generation refuses to let go of mainland China.
Chinese culture also has the famous line that translates roughly to “after having been united for a while, it must split. After having been split for a while, it must unite” that refers to China in general. Taiwan, HK, and “China” have been split for a bit and the PRC wants to see it reunited.
- The problem is that any such reunification would presumably be on the PRC's terms, and that didn't turn out so well for Hong Kong.
It's that "saving face" stuff which makes you lose even more face by looking silly.
They want China to be the old Qing borders. Both Chinas still claim it.

China gaining Taiwan would end global trade. That is the reason no one will let them forcibly take it.

Uhm, you can freely leave China? And unless you're a secret FBI agent, your family is probably safe.
I've heard those stories of "secret Chinese police in the Netherlands", but they are based on words of like one man without decent confirmation
in its* population

By having the CCP step down, right?

That would be a dream, but not feasible.

simple extortion from the boss of a criminal mafia

It could happen. In China, among many other places, same-sex hand holding isn't uncommon among friends and doesn't indicate a romantic attachment. I dont imagine Biden and Xi have that kind of relationship, though.

I thought I read like 3 weeks ago they had no interest anytime soon

If trying to invade Taiwan weakens china like it did with Russia invading Ukraine then I’m all for it. Fuck china

Throwing other people's bodies into the meat grinder to spite our global enemies, heck yes!!!!
- China could just fuck off, leaving them alone and then no one has to die. But people supporting sovereign self defense are the baddies?
I'd wager China is on a different level than Russia. But I hope I am at least partially wrong.
- They aren't. They're trying to reform their military, and they're in a better position to do so. But if they invaded today it would be really bad for them.

This is like Kevin Heart warning Mike Tyson. LOL, just funny and stupid.

China actually can challenge US in the Pacific theatre.
Besides, it's a matter of how far each side is ready to go. Taiwan is important for the US, but vital for China. US will back down and avoid escalation sooner.
Also, when you have nuclear states on each side, situation always gets very precarious.
So do not underestimate the leg China has here.
- How is Taiwan crucial for China? Locality? There's nothing there of value aside from subjugation and a raw land grab.
  The terrain makes it fairly defensible on the west coast. The economy would tank. Businesses of real value would implode.
  The people don't want to be "reunified" and will not tow the line so easily. China has never had to endure longterm modern asymmetrical warfare.
  I just don't see how it would benefit them vs the cost in the short and near term. If they could pull it off over 50 years then maybe but I don't think it would play out that way.
- That's some dangerous speculation for a country that spent 20 years fighting terrorists in the Middle East whose main demand was, "Yankees go home."
- They would almost certainly lose today, though it'd be costly to everyone involved. Provided the Philippines doesn't elect another Duterte-type government, their nearby position will likely be enough to keep Taiwan supplied with air cover, if nothing else.
  They don't have a lot of carriers, or the long experience of the US Navy with them, and they're still ramping up production of fifth generation fighters (the J-20). Hypersonic missiles give them an edge, but they're not the wonder weapons they're sometimes made out to be.
  Ukraine has had two Patriot missile batteries for most of the past year--they just got a third--and they practically shut down Russian missile attacks. Taiwan has seven, and they need to cover a much smaller amount of land.
  It's more a question of where the Chinese military will be in 4 years. However, after 8 years, demographics in the country--long term effects of the One Child policy--are likely to strangle their ability to have a military on equal footing. Too many old people and not enough young people to take care of them. It's possible this window of opportunity is already closed.
  There's a lot of classic US sandbagging going on. "We're falling behind, we need a 1,000 ship navy to keep up with China". Truth is, we only need to lay out the right pieces and the invasion will never happen. We don't need to fund an even bigger navy and feed all that more money into the military-industrial complex.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

At last year’s Chinese Communist Party Congress, Xi stated publicly that China would attack Taiwan militarily if it declares independence with foreign support.

Xi, who has set a goal of doubling the size of the Chinese economy by 2035, also said that "we must continue to pursue economic development as our central task."

Some experts believe it is doubtful that China would attack Taiwan if it does not declare independence because a military conflict would likely prevent Beijing from reaching its economic goals.

During the summit in San Francisco, Xi expressed concerns about the candidates running for president of Taiwan in next month’s election, according to U.S. officials.

Biden’s meeting with Xi, their first in a year, took American officials months to secure after relations between Washington and Beijing reached a low point in February after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon.

CIA Director William Burns said earlier this year that U.S. intelligence shows that Xi has directed his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

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bla bla... but everyone still buys shit from china... you use iphones, chrome and everything as long as it is convenient for you... and then do the butthurt cry here. hows that supposed to change anything?

Yeah, voting with your dollar definitely will make the change, just buy something else and struggle a bit harder, that change is right around the corner /s

Horseshit. That status quo has always been a Taiwan free of CCP rule. The PRC has never controlled Taiwan and their stated goal is to make it part of their country by any means necessary; that's disrupting that status quo. The US, on the other hand, supports the status quo of the ROC existing and the people of Taiwan being allowed to decide what they want for themselves.
Even the most shameless CCP propagandist should realize that trying to convince people of the ridiculous lie that the country promising imperial conquest of land that's never been theirs "wants to maintain the status quo" is foolish nonsense.
- yeah thats like saying hong kong normalized into china