If ever a topic was beaten to death, then beaten and beaten after its death ...

But to answer the main question, I don't think that it is true that the people of Taiwan are so much "Denying their Chinese Heritage" or "Denying Reality" or denying anything at all. Seems to me that there is plenty of pride in their Chinese heritage.

There is an aboriginal component to their overall population, but I've yet to see anybody provide a legitimate source to prove that that group constitutes a majority the population of Taiwan. From the late Ming Dynasty on, Taiwan is completely and totally dominated by Chinese Culture and by China itself. It already had strong roots in Chinese Culture and ancestry long before this. There seems to be a lot of focus on proving that they are a unique and separate people, but that argument seems pointless since "Chinese" constitutes a long list of ethnic groups anyways.

The really valid point behind the independence movement in Taiwan seems to be more along the lines of "We've already an independent country for all intents and purposes, why not just make it official?" Much of the opposition to that movement sees the idea of independence as a betrayal of their Chinese Heritage. Isn't it interesting that that this is a perfect description of the 13 Colonies (later the USA) as of 1776?

The difference is that Taiwan will lose its Revolutionary War, guaranteed. Hard to predict how quickly it all ends, but the PLA doesn't have much water to cross to get there and they have such overwhelming numbers that the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

Ultimately, the whole world will lose, China included, in the aftermath. Lets say that the USA, Europe, ASEAN and everyone else does not get involved militarily and Taiwan is overrun. The entire world community will condemn this invasion and sever economic ties with China. You can pretty well guarantee they would on the basis of "Human Rights", or whatever you like. Nobody stands to gain anything from such a conflict.

I think that both sides are a bit childish and stupid about the whole thing. On the one hand, China is a kid who says a toy is his and "If you take my toy from me I'm going to beat you up!" The Taiwanese Indendence side is comparable to an unarmed man on a street throwing rocks at a tank that has its barrell and machine guns aimed right at him. The tank crew has warned him that if he does not stop throwing rocks, they will open fire. He continues to throw rocks. Now that's just plain stupid!

Geez this is stupid.
How about, "why can't China just shut the h3ll up?"
Heck, I'm of Chinese descent but I feel absolutely NO allegiance towards China. I'm a citizen of South Korea first... and a guy with a soft spot for Europe 2nd

Howcome you have no soft spot for Asia but the Europeans? If China is the problem, well, China=/= Asia.

You are SK citizen, you are not supposed to have allegiance to China.

Depends where in Europe as well. It's because it's a bit of my 2nd home.
Some soft spot for Indonesia actually.

you've been around. Got Diseases?

maybe the mods should put in a filtering device that everytime the words china and taiwan are mentioned close to eachother, the thread gets automatically locked.

I'm in favor of it!

Because then Someone would refer to Taiwan as Formosa just to kick it up again

Originally Posted by Boobies

you've been around. Got Diseases?

I hope you're enjoying SARS my friend. I'm quite healthy actually. Thank you.

Too far away to get SARS.