China-Taiwan reunification

[Chinese-Dragon]

陳 (Chan/Chen) people I have met all have pretty and handsome faces. They are the original Han Chinese I think base on my historical knowledge.

Are you sure about that? I haven't heard of it before...

Thanks for the compliment towards my last name though, lol.

 

[siegecrossbow]

陳 (Chan/Chen) people I have met all have pretty and handsome faces.They are the original Han Chinese I think base on my historical knowledge.

Any of them girls ?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Any of them girls ?

Well it's the most common surname in Hong Kong, Guangdong/Zhejiang/Fujian, Taiwan and Singapore... so there will probably be a LOT of Chinese girls with that surname.

 

[Brotherhood]

My last name "吕" is considerably less common in China today as it did during the past. It is easy to write but is really difficult to pronounce in English so I go with "Lu". My name has been a bit of embarassment for me when I was in China because I used to be the butt of all the "donkey" jokes.

How common is my last name in Hong Kong and Taiwan? (I know about Annette Lu and yes, it was also a bit embarrasing to share her lastname).

Hey bro, your last name is very popular for me and many others at least in HK, how can anyone forget our "吕奇", the lengendary movie star of all time.

 

[Brotherhood]

Any of them girls ?

I hope this one will do the magic for you

 

[lcloo]

My last name "吕" is considerably less common in China today as it did during the past. It is easy to write but is really difficult to pronounce in English so I go with "Lu". My name has been a bit of embarassment for me when I was in China because I used to be the butt of all the "donkey" jokes.

How common is my last name in Hong Kong and Taiwan? (I know about Annette Lu and yes, it was also a bit embarrasing to share her lastname).

My family name is also 吕，my grandfather migrated to Malaysia in late 1910s from Fujian, Jinjiang 晋江。Lu or Loo is common in Shandong, Fujian, Guandong.

 

[Brotherhood]

China unification by integration
By Sreeram Chaulia Jul 3, 2010

The signing this week of a controversial free-trade agreement between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan is a significant milestone in East Asian history. It brings China and the little anti-communist outpost about 150 kilometers across the Taiwan Strait from the mainland coast into tighter embrace, generating scenarios of a creeping velvet remarriage of territories divorced since 1949.

Like South and North Korea, the Taiwan-China problem is a security sore that has carried over from the early Cold War in Asia. In August 1945, there had been a brief window of opportunity when warring Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met for American-brokered peace talks in the Chinese city of Chongqing. Mutual suspicion and ideological divides closed that window and eventually produced a Taiwan politically separate from the mainland.

On Tuesday, Chinese and Taiwanese quasi-governmental associations met in this very same Chongqing to sign an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement that progressively slashes tariffs on commodities and services flowing in both directions. Far removed from the ego clashes of Chiang and Mao and their alternative visions of class and social reengineering in post-colonial China, the Taiwan and China of today had the political and economic capital to push this pact through.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008 on an ambiguous campaign slogan of "no reunification, no independence and no war" with China. His rapprochement policies towards the mainland that followed ushered in an unprecedented thaw via cross-strait tourism, cultural exchanges and investment promotion. The free-trade deal is the icing on the cake of a cumulative improvement of relations.

To his critics, Ma is serving up Taiwan's hard-preserved independence to Beijing on a platter by increasing the density of contacts between the two estranged territories. But Ma reckons that industrially advanced Taiwan's recent economic woes demand a course correction and realignment with the booming business environment in the mainland.

Pre-existing restrictions on the amounts that Taiwanese businesses could invest in the mainland manufacturing miracle, and limits on outward mainland investment in Taiwan's financial, real estate and industrial sectors had been justified by regime after regime in Taipei as necessary political protection against being reduced into a satellite of Beijing in all but name.

But once Ma took the helm, soaring unemployment, inflation and plummeting growth in a Taiwan that was one of the original Asian Tiger economies created a dire economic need to loosen controls on cross-strait economic transactions.

The severe economic downturn facing Taiwan after the global financial crash of September 2008 re-emphasized the benefit of freeing the movement of goods and capital to and from the mainland. That economics underpins Taiwan's bold step to normalize and supercharge relations with the mainland is evident from the Taipei government projections that the free-trade pact will boost national economic growth by as much as 1.7%.

For Ma, who rode to power with a promise of restoring Taiwan to a 6% economic growth trajectory, securing access to the vast mainland consumer market is a lifeline ahead of challenging local elections at the end of this year.

The unanimous verdict on the free-trade agreement is that Taiwan will be by far the bigger beneficiary from the deal. Beijing will eliminate tariffs on about 500 imports from Taiwan while Taipei is obliged to cut duties only on a select list of 267 exports from the mainland. Unlike the mainland's preferential trade accords with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and potential ones with Japan and South Korea, the package for Taiwan is extremely generous and one-sided in favor of the smaller partner.

It makes rational economic sense for Taiwan, a fact that has reverberated in Taiwanese public opinion polls, where the majority has quietly given its green signal to Ma.

The main opposition party has cried ballyhoo about how Ma is "sleeping with the enemy" and compromising Taiwan's political freedoms by yoking the island's sovereignty to the whims of exporter and investor lobbies, but unlike in the past, there was enough political cover and economic logic for the president to conclude the agreement.

Why did the mainland act so munificently and not haggle and pressurize Taipei for concessions in the trade deal? President Hu Jintao had issued a directive in 2005 that Beijing wished for "peaceful reunification" with "our flesh-and-blood brothers" in Taiwan.

However politically suicidal it is for Ma to admit that economic integration is a step on the ladder to ultimate absorption of Taiwan into China, Beijing very much sees it that way. For a trading superpower to throw open its market to Taiwanese enterprises on discount terms is a minor concession for gaining even greater leverage on the Taiwanese economy and installing a staunchly pro-China lobby in Taiwan's elite circles.

The necessity to penetrate and win more allies in Taiwan's private sector is felt acutely in Beijing because of continued US armament of Taipei as a strategic ally in the East China Sea. Taiwan is a huge pawn in US-China relations, with Washington determined to militarily equip the island for self-defense against aggression by the mainland, which officially labels Taiwan a renegade "province" of the People's Republic.

As reported by Asia Times Online, Beijing is striving through backroom channels in the US Congress to bargain for cancelation of the latest US$6.4 billion American weapons tranche to Taipei. (See Senator Feinstein's whispers Asia Times Online, June 29, 2010.)

But given the resolute bipartisan commitment in Washington to denying the mainland military a decisive advantage to occupy Taiwan and Ma's own hedging strategy of desiring more US weaponry for self-defense, Beijing has no option but to dangle softer instruments like sweetened trade deals en route to its unification dream.

True to Deng Xiaoping's maxim - "hide your strength and bide your time" - China can wait until Taiwan is ripe enough through economic interlinking to fall into the motherland's lap without firing a shot. The final outcome will depend on how skillfully Ma and his possibly like-minded successors in Taipei can maintain the fine balance of US-aided military preparedness to deter a Chinese invasion on one hand and sinking into China's economic bosom on the other.

Sreeram Chaulia is associate professor of world politics at the OP Jindal Global University in Sonipat, India.
Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong News and Business.

 

[Martian2]

The following video illustrates the reason that Taiwanese are reluctant to make an abrupt political change. Life is very pleasant. Why rock the boat? Therefore, reunification must be a gradual process.

Let's take a video-cruise along the Ai (i.e. Love) River in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Please make sure to select 720p in the bottom right-hand corner. It is far clearer than 480p.

 

[Brotherhood]

The following video illustrates the reason that Taiwanese are reluctant to make an abrupt political change. Life is very pleasant. Why rock the boat? Therefore, reunification must be a gradual process.

Let's take a video-cruise along the Ai (i.e. Love) River in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Please make sure to select 720p in the bottom right-hand corner. It is far clearer than 480p.
YouTube - Full HD 1080p Music Viedo HD??????????(1)??????

Well said brother, thanks for the beautiful video, hopefully one day i be there too.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

The following video illustrates the reason that Taiwanese are reluctant to make an abrupt political change. Life is very pleasant. Why rock the boat? Therefore, reunification must be a gradual process.

Let's take a video-cruise along the Ai (i.e. Love) River in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Beautiful video.

 

[below_freezing]

Taiwan is not a normal small country. One of the reasons often cited by American think-tanks and media is that it is harmful to the security of the United States for China to take control of Taiwan (and Hsinchu Science Park) today.

Currently, Taiwan still possesses more advanced technology than Mainland China in important sectors. The most obvious is semiconductor technology, where TSMC is at the leading-edge of 28nm. The point is that Taiwan is a worthwhile prize and the U.S. intends to informally "hold onto" Taiwan for as long as possible.

If a minor gesture regarding the location of a summit meeting is the price that Hu must pay to hasten the control of Taiwan by the Mainland, I am certain that is a price that the CPC would gladly pay.

As someone who grew up in a KMT household, I am biased towards only "One China." However, it would be a profound mistake for others to believe that Taiwan does not have options.

If the KMT and its followers joined the DPP and advocated Taiwan independence then Mainland China would have a real problem on its hands. If all of Taiwan called out to the United States for self-determination, independence, and democracy, there is a strong possibility that the United States will try to keep Taiwan within the United States-Europe-Japan-South Korea-Australia-New Zealand camp.

The KMT already has a difficult job. The KMT is stealthily pushing ahead with reunification because KMT members have always been taught (from the time of being young children) that there is only One China. Threatening Taiwan and changing the minds of KMT members is a bad idea.

Taiwan is a proud nation. It was Taiwan's technology and money (e.g. $150 to $300 billion U.S. dollars of direct investment) that built the countless manufacturing plants on Mainland China. While conveniently forgetting Taiwan's important contributions to China's rise, the expectation that Taiwan has to crawl to Mainland China will not go down well with the Taiwan compatriots.

has it? taiwan has made the IDF, compare that with the F-16 and J-10, it is slow, light and weak.

a strength in computer chips does not mean a strength in overall technology. especially when the leap from "computer" to "thermonuclear" is so large, and both are completely unrelated fields. if you were talking about japan being nuclear capable (the warhead, not the missile itself), maybe. taiwan however lacks the aerospace experience to manufacture modern ballistic missiles (just look at the state of taiwan's indigenous fighter) and the nuclear experience to get anywhere near an atomic weapon.

and at any signs of enrichment we can take it out just like israel took out iraq's reactors at the height of saddam's power. the americans would also not lift a finger at this.

don't overestimate yourselves. we aren't going to sacrifice the rest of china for taiwan.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

don't overestimate yourselves. we aren't going to sacrifice the rest of china for taiwan.

What's the issue here? Martian2 is Taiwanese, and supports re-unification with the Mainland.

Surely that's a good thing right?

 

[below_freezing]

What's the issue here? Martian2 is Taiwanese and supports reunification with the Mainland.

Surely that's a good thing right?

what i'm worried about is too many concessions to taiwan at the cost of the rest of china.

taiwan has a population of 23 million. this is 1/3 the size of the communist party alone, 70 million which is the population of france.

any concessions to taiwan will make taiwan happy (the actual benefit of doing so is questionable), but subsidies for their businesses will drag our own ones down. this has already been seen for the fruit farmers. it suppresses our own development, and maybe doesn't even bring us closer to reunification... there has been no evidence that it does.

to create 1 job in taiwan, we have to give up 3 here.

now, i have to ask this question: who decides if the CPC keeps sitting in beijing? the people in taiwan, or the people on the mainland? we put them in power, and a revolt due to bad governance will put them out. thus, the CPC should not risk alienating its real power base with undue concessions that have no real results.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

^^^ Fair enough.

I'm sure it will be worked out properly in the end.

 

[Brotherhood]

what i'm worried about is too many concessions to taiwan at the cost of the rest of china.

taiwan has a population of 23 million. this is 1/3 the size of the communist party alone, 70 million which is the population of france.

any concessions to taiwan will make taiwan happy (the actual benefit of doing so is questionable), but subsidies for their businesses will drag our own ones down. this has already been seen for the fruit farmers. it suppresses our own development, and maybe doesn't even bring us closer to reunification... there has been no evidence that it does.

to create 1 job in taiwan, we have to give up 3 here.

now, i have to ask this question: who decides if the CPC keeps sitting in beijing? the people in taiwan, or the people on the mainland? we put them in power, and a revolt due to bad governance will put them out. thus, the CPC should not risk alienating its real power base with undue concessions that have no real results.

Bro, it takes time and effort regarding reunification, may it take decades, any little step should be appreciate. I for one who have full confident it will happen in the near future after witnessing the unification of HK, Keyword:"Faith"
Btw, Martian 2 is a very patriotic Chinese, he deserve respect.