This was hands down my favorite bit from the article:
Some even maintain that every dollar spent on Ukraine is a waste of taxpayer money that could be better used on domestic priorities, such as combating the spread of fentanyl.
These arguments are misguided and dangerous.
How dare they suggest that money would be better spent addressing domestic problems than on a proxy war half way across the world. That’s misguided and dangerous thinking.
I also love how the article takes it for granted that US must prop up puppet regimes in Asia as if that’s somehow in the interest of the people living in US.
No the Taiwanese aren’t. I lived abroad in Taiwan a while back for some time and even then their opinions on China are a lot more nuanced than Americans seem to think. The ones I still talk to are more concerned about the US instigating something that makes it harder for them to live their lives.
Could you elaborate on those nuanced opinions? That sounds like a dig but I’m actually just interested, especially since every time I see someone report on their experiences in Taiwan they represent the opinions they encountered wildly differently from the other accounts.
Not them but I can provide some nuance. Most importantly I think, the peoples of the mainland and Taiwan island aren’t a separate people. Folks in Taiwan island have family and friends in the mainland and vice versa. This was the case in the Korean peninsula as well, so fair question to ask the difference, which is that there was never really a wall of separation between Taiwan island and the rest of China. Taiwan’s main trade partner is the PRC and it’s easy to travel, meaning whatever propoganda might be thrown at these people cannot work as it has in occupied Korea.
On top of these ties, the political relationship here also isn’t as the western MSM portrays it. The CPC generally isn’t sabre-rattling the way the US or even the EU are, there are few threats being thrown around and that’s usually threats towards the west for trying to drive a wegde, not the people on the island. Similarly, despite their declarations to the west, even the DPP aren’t working to completely sever ties. They’ll posture and try to hurt the PRC but they know they can’t survive without the mainland.
