That's not to say there aren't plenty problems but I think they got decent chances to solve or navigate many of them. For example managing their hard-on for Taiwan without resorting to war. Managing the decline of the US without war is another big challenge.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The hard-on is not really difficult to understand or empathize with. I mean, if the British had fled to, and seized control of Florida during the American Revolutionary War, I'm not sure people would be ok with just ceding the land to them...

I suspect that had the Kuomintang won mainland China and the CCP taken Taiwan, there wouldn't be the global outpouring for Taiwanese sovereignty. People want to make this seem like a moral argument, but it's really just the global west continuing their crusade against anything socialist or communist.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Oh yeah, I get all that. A CCP Taiwan would have been treated like Cuba and probably had similar if not worse fate given what happened with other left revolutions in the region.

That said, the history since then has created facts on the ground that Taiwan is independent at present and has had some form of democracy for 30 odd years. I personally would prefer for people in Taiwan to decide on whether to go independent, stay status quo or move towards unification. If China keeps developing as it has in the past, I think there's a good chance that in a couple of decades Taiwanese people could decide to unify. There's always gonna be unhappy people either way. Such is democracy. And any other system for that matter.