[bumbada]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

All people in China mainland is taught that Taiwan is part of China and it is so ingrained on them that it is impossible to discuss this with them.

And now that things are getting sour in China the CCP always uses the external enemy card to redirect the anger against others and not become beheaded themselves.

[FooBarWidget]

Meh. I'm Chinese and I think you're seriously overestimating the amount of influence CCP propaganda has on people's opinions, and seriously underestimating the genuineness of people's opinions on Taiwan. This is typical western bias: blaming everything on the CCP as if the people can't have any sort of agency or legitimate opinion that differs from the western mainstream.

There is a saying that if China were democratic, then they would have invaded Taiwan yesterday. In this sense the CCP are moderates.

I also can't believe that so many people accuse China of propping up an external enemy without taking a good hard look at their own country's behavior. It's this sort of lack of introspection that could eventually trigger WW3.

[goblin89]

I had seen China and talked to Chinese. The range of policy opinions my counterparts could express, and topics they could engage in, seemed to be extremely limited due to what I could only assume was the state of being misinformed (including by omission) by—and fearing retribution from—their own government. The very same factors would, obviously, be limiting their political agency.

Do you have a real choice in how to personally treat CCP and Taiwan? As in, do you feel like you can talk about, say, respecting the preference of Taiwan citizens about them being/not being part of China, or about that mysterious May 35th incident, with, say, a taxi driver?

Could it be that the population overwhelmingly supports invading Taiwan because this is literally the only appropriate course of action instilled in them by a government in full control of both traditional and social media?

[ailun]

I agree that there is a bad tendency to look at Chinese people as brainwashed drones. But you're going too far in the opposite direction. China's media control, educational policies, and army of nationalists absolutely affect the Overton window in the Chinese public sphere. You can't tell me with a straight face that it's acceptable to discuss Taiwan independence online in a positive way in China.

If someone genuinely feels that mainstream opinion in China is wrong on Taiwan, they aren't going to be comfortable discussing it openly.

[garmaine]

> There is a saying that if China were democratic, then they would have invaded Taiwan yesterday. In this sense the CCP are moderates.

That saying is propaganda. Here is a list of literally every war between democratic powers in the entirety of human civilization. It's a very short list, given the sheer number of wars that have been fought:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_between_democraci...

Democracies don't start wars with other democracies, outside of very unusual and exceptional circumstances. If China and Taiwan were both democratic, there wouldn't even be a thought of war.

[mensetmanusman]

The US was 80% against getting involved in WW2, so democracies aren’t as predictable as one would think.