American liberals who care more about the ballroom he’s building than the fact that he threatened to wipe out an entire civilization and bombed a girls’ school and targeted civilian infrastructure supporting millions. 🙄
To all the Democrats excoriating Trump for turning Taiwan into a bargaining chip, don't pretend your party would never do such a thing.
In 2011, Jake Sullivan sent an article to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton titled: "To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan." Clinton replied "I saw it and thought it was so clever. Let's discuss." What was so clever?
"There are dozens of initiatives President Obama could undertake to strengthen our economic security. Here is one: He should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015."
All this handwringing about how deplorable Trump is being to poor little Democratic Taiwan by Democrats just hypocritical unless you don't really understand your own country's foreign policy. You can't TURN Taiwan into a bargaining chip because that's always what is has been since derecognition.
We Taiwanese were OK with being grateful to America as our protector while the going was good. But now that America can no longer offer true protection, it's not fair to expect us to fight the to the last Taiwanese for your geopolitical interests in the Asia Pacific.
China can still learn positive lessons from Western tech, there are only negative lessons to learn from Western governance, social and financial institutions. 🤷🏻♂️
This public sentiment is reducing openness to learning from the West and contributing to a far less flexible atmosphere, making the country somewhat inclined to compromise or de-escalate in future confrontations. The result could lead to a more challenging period in US-China relations. 2/2
@AngelicaOung@IslaIsland886 Today linguistic diversity is thriving in Taiwan (see all the dialect radio and TV stations) while its populace ALSO reaps the benefits of collectively speaking a prominent global / international language. AND guess what, this is the same situation in China.
@IslaIsland886@AngelicaOung But Minnanhua wasn’t spoken by everyone Taiwan...there are/were significant Hakka as well as Indigenous language communities. Mandarin was actually more neutral.
“I can’t shake the sense that something fundamental in China has changed.”
Journal correspondent Yoko Kubota reflects on how a distrust of foreigners has come to permeate everyday life in China. 🔗 https://t.co/l0PYs75zcG
On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted.
Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.
I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.
I’m not defending Iran but let’s be honest about all of this.
The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades, that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon.
You know who has nuclear weapons?
Israel.
They are more than capable of defending themselves without the US having to fight their wars, kill innocent people and children, and pay for it.
Trump threatening to bomb power plants and bridges hurts the Iranian people, the very people Trump claimed he was freeing.
On Easter, of all days, we as Christians should be reminded that the son of God died and rose from the grave so that we can be forgiven once and for all of our sins. Jesus commanded us to love one another and forgive one another. Even our enemies.
Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.
Christians in the administration should be pursuing peace. Urging the President to make peace.
Not escalating war that is hurting people.
This NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024, I know, I was there more than most.
This is not making America great again, this is evil.
The liberal vote harder attitude exactly mirrors the neoliberal "work harder" in transforming the global, systemic political and economic crisis we find ourselves in into something we can extricate ourselves from through sheer force of individual agency.
THE SEZ-SAR TOUR 2026
Planning my first trip to China in 2026!
I really want to go to Hainan since I’ve seen it so much in the news. But since there are no direct flights there, it also seems to make sense to do a stop somewhere else first.
I’m thinking of flying into Xiamen first. Not sure exactly what to do there but I should see it?
Then the main event: Hainan! Big decision point is to fly into Haikou (old street vibes) or Sanya (sand seafood resorts vibes)
Fly back via Shenzen: catch the vibe on the tech stuff, hit one of those megaspas I missed out in Shanghai because I rolled my ankle, then back to Taipei.
Recommendations welcome! I’m on a light budget both in terms of RMBs and calories (gaining multiple KGs like I did in Shanghai is not an option.) Would love to meetup with any locals!