Everybody knows about the backstory, there was a civil war, KMT fled to Taiwan creating two Chinas sort of, maybe, neither recognises the other, whole thing. ROC (Taiwan) ended up transitioning from military rule to a multi-party democracy, while the PRC (mainland China) didn't do that (they did reform economically, "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and all that, but still a one-party state, not a multi-party democracy). The status quo right now is that Taiwan is in the grey area of statehood where they function pretty much independently but aren't properly recognised, and both sides of the strait are feeling pretty tense right now.
Taiwan's stance on the issue is that they would like to remain politically and economically independent of mainland China, retaining their multi-party democracy, political connections to its allies, economic trade connections, etc. Also, a majority of the people in Taiwan do not support reunification with China.
China's stance on the issue is that Taiwan should be reunified with the mainland at all costs, ideally peacefully, but war is not ruled out. They argue that Taiwan was unfairly separated from the mainland by imperial powers in their "century of humiliation". Strategically, taking Taiwan would be beneficial to China as they would have better control of the sea.
Is it even possible for both sides to agree to a peaceful solution? Personally, I can only see two ways this could go about that has the consent of both parties. One, a reformist leader takes power in the mainland and gives up on Taiwan, and the two exist as separate independent nations. Or two, the mainland gets a super-reformist leader that transitions the mainland to a multi-party democracy, and maybe then reunification could be on the table, with Taiwan keeping an autonomous status given the large cultural difference (similar to Hong Kong or Macau's current status). Both options are, unfortunately, very unlikely to occur in the near future.
A third option (?) would be a pseudo-unification, where Taiwan becomes a recognised country, but there can be free movement of people between the mainland and Taiwan, free trade, that sort of stuff (sort of like the EU? Maybe?). Not sure if the PRC would accept that.
What are your thoughts on a peaceful solution to the crisis that both sides could agree on?
edit: Damn there are crazies in both ends of the arguments. I really don't think giving Taiwan nukes would help solve the problem.
I think the current best solution, looking at the more reasonable and realistic comments, seems to be to maintain the status quo, at least until both sides of the strait are able to come into some sort of agreement (which seems to be worlds away right now given their current very opposing stances on the issue)
In this case? bad. They don't feel any need to learn about Taiwan or Xinjiang or HK or Tibet beyond its utility in proving this, and certainly don't care how it might affect the actual people living there.
You can observe the same phenomenon with Russia; no matter the data, somehow its indicative of Russia bad and justification to increase hostile action, even at the expense of Russia's victims.
I don't think that HK, Xinjiang or Tibet are relevant here. My own position is that the Taiwanese don't want to be part of the PRC. And that's all that matters.
We have polling, it says the people of Taiwan overwhelmingly want staus quo. What they want doesn't matter to you.
And do you also accept they don't want to be part of the PRC?
Status quo is de-facto independence. But moreover, do you think the threats from the mainland over the prospect of the Taiwanese pursuing independence officially somewhat tempers and changes how the Taiwanese react to polls on this issue? And even then, in a direct comparison - pro-independence positions appear to be nearly 4 times as popular than unification positions within the pollling. Why is this?
This being an option is contingent on the US not using them as a sacrificial pawn against China, which is what the "independence" option represents. The choice isn't China vs status quo vs "freedom and democracy", its China vs status quo vs war, then China, and every warmongering lib here wants to fight China to the last drop of Taiwanese blood.
How? Is maintaining the status quo being a "sacrificial pawn" against China?
Why would the independence option inherently represent that?
I didn't even refer to independence. You just said that: "We have polling, it says the people of Taiwan overwhelmingly want staus quo." If that's true, then do you also accept that by the same polling, the people of Taiwan do not want to be part of the PRC? Not a hard question to answer.
Okay? Seems to me that China would be the party blamable in that scenario, and no-one else.
I don't want to fight China. Most people here seem to support continuation of the status quo.
No, anything that would require China invade is being a sacrificial pawn, such as declaring independence, hosting a military base, anything that pulls Taiwan outside of China's sphere essentially.
Because China isn't going to tolerate it's own territory, right off its coast, being used as a forward operating base by a hostile country.
The people who are calling for Taiwan to do things that would result in immediate war, such as acquiring nukes or declaring independence are not supporting the continuation of the status quo.
China seems happy with status quo followed by reunification "eventually", Taiwan is happy with status quo, it's literally only bloodthirsty western libs and 4% of Taiwan who want Taiwan to leave China entirely.
Why would that require China being a sacrificial pawn? What US military base in Taiwan are you currently referring to?
Why is Taiwan inherently owed to China's "sphere"?
I imagine in the event of hypothetical official Taiwanese independence that they would agree to not load up the island with US military bases. That would be a pretty reasonable red line for China.
Yes. Random people in a thread. They aren't most people.
Many are also being hyperbolic.
Overall it's about 25% of Taiwanese people who aspire towards independence, and about 7-8% who want to "unify". Do you accept that people in Taiwan do not want to join the PRC?