Somewhat reddit-brained lib friend of mine sent this article which triggered a whole discussion of geopolitics: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/tsmcs-euv-machines-are-equipped-with-a-remote-self-destruct-in-case-of-an-invasion
He said that would reduce the chance of an invasion and I was like (paraphrasing): “really? does it? the generations-long and unfinished business of the chinese civil war and all the history there is outweighed by the thought of losing one chip fab that they’ve already proven they don’t really need after all the sanctions? They aren’t going to invade unless their hand is forced, there’s literally already US troops on taiwan-held islands, if they were on the brink of invading they would have done it already, but they aren’t.”
He basically argued that the majority of people there wanted to be independent therefore its simple self determination and the US should help them, etc.
I said the no capitalist state gives a flying fuck about self determination and asked if texas has the right to secede, or perhaps more relevantly, if texas settlers had the right to secede from mexico and join the US in the first place? because its not like the nationalists that took over the island were its native inhabitants, who are now mostly dead, flooding a low-population place with “settlers” doesn’t mean you own it…
we went back and forth a bunch and he stopped arguing when I pointed out the inconsistency of supporting palestine but also taiwan, when they (while not the same, taiwan wasn’t settler colonialism) have kind of a similar arc, what with israel’s “majority”, both having invaded and largely displacing the prior inhabitants.
I don’t feel I had all the best arguments at my disposal, though overall I feel good about my responses.
“imagine if mussolini, instead of getting captured and owned by communist partisans, fled with his secret police and what remained of his armed forces, to sicily. and if america called a halt to the conflict after the rest of italy was liberated from fascism and started funneling money to the island of fascists to prop it up as a government in exile to challenge the legitimacy of a socialist government in italy and be a training ground for spies and saboteurs.”
“anyway, 70 years later, welcome to taiwan.”
“also, check out operation gladio, because what the US actually did in post-war italy is also wild.”
EDIT: a funny historical bit of trivia to mention is that apparently Truman grew bored / irritated with the dependency of the chinese fascists on the american payroll and their corrupt grifting, so would refer to Chiang Kai-Shek as “Cash My Check”.