I was little when my dad told me about the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1996, where China was threatening to bomb the living daylights out of Taiwan. Apparently, it’s wasn 't’ ok in China’s eye for the president of Taiwan to deliver a speech at Cornell University. My dad explained every detail of it and yet I left that conversation with a thought stuck in my head. Why would they do that?Why would they threaten this way?
Look, I’ve heard the words “Taiwan is part of China”, “It’s not a country”, “You’re Chinese”, trust me I’ve heard all of them. Today I’m here to talk to you why that’s wrong, why it’s incorrect. I know it’s controversial and even if you disagree with me, please hear me out. For those who don’t know much about the history between the two
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Population, check, living in a defined area, check, government, check, defined territory, check.
The only debatable thing is “the capacity to enter relations with other states” and that is directly influenced by something called “true recognition”. As of right now, only 22 states fully recognize Taiwan while pretty much the rest of the world have “un-official diplomatic relations.” So let’s ask this. Does having an unofficial diplomatic relationship differ from an official one ? When asked about it, a former Taiwanese Marine simply said that “recognition doesn’t matter in terms of economic relations, but having recognition of a country serves the purpose of building the confidence of people.”
Because of the lack of recognition, I’ve also heard the argument that “you can’t just declare yourself a country”. Throughout history, it’s the people of the land who determine themselves if they are a country or not. Sure there might be disagreement, but most countries just say it themselves. The US declared themselves a country, the Canadians declared independence, even North Korea did.
Why can’t Taiwan do the