Amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a former Taiwanese president who supports unification that the countries “belong” together.

“Differences in systems cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same country and nation,” Xi said.

“External interference cannot stop the historical trend of reunion of the country and family,” Xi said, in comments reported by Taiwanese media and published by Reuters.

Beijing claims the independent island of Taiwan is a Chinese province and has threatened to use force to achieve unification. China frequently sends warplanes and naval vessels to circle the small island democracy and has been mounting an increasing number of military drills over recent years.

  • solomon42069@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    He’s technically correct - the Taiwanese government are the legitimate government of China living in exile from the Communist Party’s violent take over.

    • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      This is a wild take. The Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT did not have any more legitimacy than the CPC. He was a straight up fascist and after fleeing to Taiwan he politically repressed native Taiwanese people by having them massacred. You can oppose Xi and the CPC without having to pretend the KMT was at all legitimate.

      • wabafee@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Both are violent. Just happened that the first one matured into a democracy while the second into a dictatorship.

        • Luden [comrade/them]@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          None of that makes Taiwan the ‘legitimate government’ though. If they had been eliminated back when they were perpetuating their own atrocities, nobody posting that would have cared. It was a civil war that the US intervened in so they could continue to use Taiwan as a geopolitical tool. And its constantly the US talking about how China is going to invade any day now.

            • Luden [comrade/them]@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              Do you disagree with my comment about the KMT? If the Confederacy had retreated to Hawaii and stopped being racist, they still wouldn’t be the legitimate government of the US.

              • jaschen@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                Well, Hawaii didn’t get statehood until 1959. As a matter of fact, Hawaii wasn’t even Annexed until The Confederacy was dissolved. But I get what you mean.

                Let’s say they did go there and started a new country on their own. The United States doesn’t own that government.