The Taiwan Conflict, Explained From Both Sides

[@realryanchapman]

Thank you to everyone who supports these projects on Patreon. I wouldn't be able to devote so much time and so many resources to one video otherwise. I'm trying to make the best work I can and the donations really do make it possible. If you'd like to chip in and support me, check out www.patreon.com/rchapman. Video notes below. I've seen a number of commenters who believe that I crucially left out some details about the cultural and ethnic ties between Taiwan and mainland China. Mainly two details: 1) clarifying that Taiwanese isn't an entirely original language, but instead a dialect from Fujian province (they do call it Taiwanese in Taiwan, so I stuck with their language when telling their side of the story), and 2) stressing the high proportion of ethic Chinese people living in Taiwan. That's fine, if you want to call attention to those facts, but I didn't consider them essential for this video because they don't fundamentally change the arguments from either side. Taiwan's independence argument doesn't weaken because of ethnic and cultural ties to China. China's claim to Taiwan doesn't strengthen either. If you think those details do give China a legitimate claim to Taiwan (against the will of the overwhelming majority of people living there) then you're arriving at something like 'we own you through your blood,' since the shared ethnicity seems to be the pillar of that claim. That's not something I saw my Chinese sources claiming, and that's also obviously something the Taiwanese side didn't say either. Perhaps I should have presented them here anyway since they seem important to Chinese audiences, but again they don't fundamentally change the logic from either side. Many of those who stressed the ethnic ties between Taiwan and China went on to say people in Taiwan are rallying around a Taiwanese identity because they're being propagandized by their government in the education system. I think that's a fair point to get into, but if you want to cover the subject in a balanced way, you'd also have to look at how China's government propagandizes and controls their citizens too. The reality is Chinese people are among the most heavily propagandized and controlled in the world. Taiwan is one of the places with the freest speech (and freest access to information) in the world, and China is one of the places with the most controlled speech and most controlled access to information in the world. Look at any free speech index and it will tell you that. The Chinese government employs massive boroughs of people for the sole purpose of propagandizing and controlling its citizens (look up the 'Golden Shield' for example). So again, I could have covered that side of the subject, but it seems like virtually everyone making those arguments were sympathetic to China's side, and I don't think they'd be happy seeing balanced coverage of that. On that note, this video only covered China's official position on Taiwan. Since there isn't free speech in China, this is pretty much how everyone covers it. In places like Taiwan, it's easier to make distinctions between public thought and official thought. You can poll people or just point to public backlashes against official positions. In China, widespread expression of dissent from official thought (like the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan) is rarely allowed, so we're mostly left with pointing at official thought. That all being said, I don't think there's reason to believe that the public in China doesn't more or less support or believe the official position laid out here. Last note - many think this video tried to create the impression that Taiwan is mostly made up of aborigines, and I'm not sure who would watch this video and actually think that. As I kept talking about Taiwan being colonized by various powers, and even the KMT moving there as an entire party, I assumed people understood (and knew, even by common sense) that the aborigines eventually became a small minority there. I didn't think that was something that needed to be explicitly said, and ultimately I try to trust the intelligence of the viewer and avoid stating the obvious if I can. - Ryan

[@jagolago-bob]

@ Ryan Chapman At 11:17 you say that China's show of force wouldn't be necessary if she had a legitimate claim on Taiwan. I don't think that's necessarily true. There are plenty of examples where civil unrest is quietened down with shows of force, but without violence. That was a slightly, if unintentionally, biased statement. I'm still not 100% sure which way I think is correct. Separate, or unified. A very interesting report, though. Good work. Thank you.

[@completetotalgoodness4786]

Change this video's title back to, "How do China and Taiwan see each other?" -'cause it made me think, "through squinted eyes?" 😂

[@taipeistp5660]

I'm from Taiwan, which is actually a colony of the United States. The media and education here are controlled and make us hate our fellow Chinese. Government officials are US puppets and have to report to US every election. We will return to China and be an equal Chinese. We are not pawns of the United States against our motherland, and we will not be sacrificed for American interests.

[@taipeistp5660]

Much of your analysis is wrong. Actually democratization was forced by the United States. This is why the US advocates democracy in small countries all over the world, because it can prop up its own puppets. Since the democratization of Taiwan, every president has to report to the United States. He represents the interests of the United States, not Taiwan. Why are you afraid to talk about American influence in your video? Isn't it freedom of speech?

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Proof that Breadtube serves Imperialism

[@jerryluan9106]

fun fact: Mainland and Taiwan are still in war status, there is no any Armistice agreement signed by both parties since the civil war began. Seems few people aware this.

[@立法院很忙]

No, the Chicoms and the KMT are involved in the Chinese civil war. You can have the KMT back. Taiwan is not China.

[@MsKateC2K]

Yep and therefore, any fighting is fair game. Also another thing people do not mention is that the so-called "Taiwanese air space" has a large portion that goes directly into the mainland Chinese airspace and overlaps. So all these reports about China going into Taiwans airspace to intimidate them is mostly China staying within their own designated airspace

[@立法院很忙]

@@MsKateC2K China violated Taiwan's sovereignty in hunting down a Chinese rebel regime - the KMT. The same act of aggression as the US hunting down Al Qaeda by invading Afghanistan.

[@Cosmism-n6g]

And still trading to each other

[@erty8305]

So are north and South Korea technically but it’s not like the Korean War is ongoing

[@koenigamd]

The “aboriginals” consist only 3% of the population of the island, what we call Taiwanese are indeed ethnic Chinese migrated from the mainland by various of waves

[@willylin8046]

Yes.But there's another thing to point out. During the Qin dynasty, only men were allowed to come to Taiwan. Many of them therefore choose to marry with aboriginal wife. Technically the majority or han people in taiwan are the mix of both.

[@timyangcc]

@@willylin8046 This point was a myth created for political reason. According to history records, the policy forbidding women crossing the strait was only performed intermittently and shortly. During such period, men came to Taiwan to earn a fortune and went back home to marry a wife. The Qing government had very strict law to forbid intermarriage of Han Chinese and aborigines. Any such marriage found would be fined and divorced. The reason was to protect the properties owned by aborigines, otherwise, all land properties would be owned by the stronger Chinese through marriage.

[@herosio270]

In fact, the genes of the Taiwanese Han people are closer to the Hokkian\ Hakka people in Fujian and Guangdong, and their Austronesian Indigenous people ancestry has been exaggerated. The Taiwanese Han people have obvious differences in appearance from the indigenous people but still similar to the Hokkian. This situation is similar to how Eurasians carrying 2-4% of Neanderthal genes are widely described as descendants of Neanderthals.This is due to political considerations.@@willylin8046

[@ericf1461]

@@timyangcc You are right about forbidding Han marrying aboriginal women. Qin government wanted to protect aboriginal people properties. But in reality, Han male eventually married to local females, and after generations, there are all mixed. We call our self “ 平埔族群”, the majority residents in Taiwan now

[@eburalik]

Less than 3%

[@fw2903]

1 correction for the video(17:23), giving Outer Mongolia to the Soviets was a deal made by Chiang Kai Shack and the Soviets, not Mao. Chiang wanted to do so to make CCP lose help from the Soviets. ROC declared Outer Mongolia independence on 19460105

[@tweedy4sg]

This is patently untrue. ROC today still formally claims Mongolia as part of ROC and also Tuva, a republic in today's Russia. This is still in the ROC constitution.

[@fw2903]

@@tweedy4sg it’s them who signed that contract with Soviet to give up outer Mongolia right before wwii ended, it’s also them who disagree what the results which is based on that contract….they allowed the independence situation first and regret it afterwards, worst part is they knew what they signed and felt guilty for it 😑

[@aj777mc8]

@@tweedy4sg those dam fk roc signed the shitty paper to give up Outer Mongolia. If you sold you house, it is no longer your and no matter how you described it. Much dam ROC.

[@lasfw190aa]

Well, because Soviet didn't bother to honour their part of the bargain too,unless you think this move is done right under charity or intimidation.

[@lukerbs]

bot

[@bellla9474]

You failed to mention that Republic of China (aka Taiwan) also officially claim Mainland China and Taiwan are all part of them. (ROC also claim Mongolia and other small territory, you could find some videos on KZbin.)

[@Cheesecake99YearsAgo]

💯

[@claricelee1079]

The Constitution of the Republic of China claims the entire China as its territory. But that constitution was ratified on 1947, which was long time ago. Today, nearly no one in Taiwan would claim Mainland China and Mongolia because it's not practical. The Constitution should be amended, but it will piss China off if Taiwanese dare to do so, which gives China the excuse to invade immediately.

[@linyuren]

The ROC no longer claims Mongolia as its territory since 2002. Some information just needs to be updated.

[@lesliecheung2003]

Also Tuva in Russia. In Chinese called Tang Nu Wu Liang Hai

[@dagelichb]

It's not "failed"! He ignored this part of information on purpose.

[@frankni6673]

It should be mentioned that under the current Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), both the mainland and Taiwan are part of ROC. Before 1971, ROC represented the whole China in UN, while PRC took over thereafter.

[@avatarxs]

Yes, the constitution of the colonial government brought over by KMT, which was written without participation of Taiwanese.

[@sharwama992]

@@avatarxs 95-97% of Taiwan are Han Chinese 😂 2.3% are Taiwanese of Austronesian ethnicity

[@sharwama992]

@@avatarxsThe so called Taiwanese that your talking about are still the same people that fled from mainland China

[@sebastian192]

@@sharwama992 uhm, my ancestors left during the Ming dynasty, that is, before even the Qing dynasty. so no, we don't really consider ourselves anymore chinese than americans think of themselves as british really

[@Andy0770]

@@sebastian192 The civil war not ended, no peace treaty signed nor declaration of independence from Imperial Japan.

[@palmj5718]

One correction, he mentioned several times about native people, foreign colonialists. Sounds majority people are aboriginal and were fighting foreign colonialists all the time. But actually there are only 2.3% indigenous people (see wiki), more than 95% people are Han who come from mainland China long times ago, far far ago than Dutch. And there’s no local new language, it’s a direct of Fujian local language since Fujian province governs Taiwan area previously. Also, need to mention that the constitution of Republic of China mentions the nation includes mainland and Taiwan, and Taiwan is inside Fujian Province, which hasn’t been officially changed yet, so it is still official valid in Taiwan.

[@user-zcm379RenJiTang]

what you mentioned are mostly correct, except Taiwan is not inside Fujian province. Taiwan has been a province sonce the Qing dynasty.

[@jianchen4002]

​@@user-zcm379RenJiTang He is right, Taiwan became a province in 1887 but was abolished in 1895. Then Taiwan was colonized by Japan until the end of WW2.

[@leau250]

Thanks~

[@Erewhon2024]

Large scale Fujianese and other Chinese immigration to Taiwan dates only to the Dutch period (as labor) and mostly to the activities of the Sino-Japanese pirate, Koxinga. Koxinga's brief dynasty only ruled a tiny area in SW Taiwan, less than a fifth the size of the island. Maybe read something other than CCP propaganda to learn history.

[@jinolin9062]

@@Erewhon2024while op couldve worded it better, arent you two saying the exact same thing???

[@ThunderRay123]

Overall, a great unbiased explanation of the Taiwan problem. I have just one thing to point out: majority of Taiwan people today came from China mainland, not those natives.

[@JW-ph8kw]

And another fact that Taiwan's economic achievements cannot have been achieved without the huge wealth taken from the mainland during KMT retreat to Taiwan

[@johkupohkuxd1697]

@@JW-ph8kw Source? Singapore did extremely well with nothing.

[@vinamiu7257]

@@johkupohkuxd1697 Check the documents. Huge amount of gold, treasures and highly educated manpower were brought from Mia land China to Taiwan by Jiang Jie Shi. By the way, the US also provided lots of resources for support after 1949 because US thought GMT was a leverage to restrain the communist China.

[@Tiffany-bd1eb]

The majority of people in Taiwan came from China long before WW2. The newer immigrants who came over with KMT make up less than 15% of the island.

[@annarboriter]

@@vinamiu7257 Are you somehow suggesting that the USA didn't provide support to the ROC before 1949? You know when the CCP was hiding out in Yan'an and the KMT and the USA were fighting to liberate Asia sovereign states from the empire of Japan Wow, that phrase: ... highly educated manpower were brought from mainland China to Taiwan by Jiang Jieshi" as if those citizens ought not to have any agency nor choice in where they were allowed to escape to.

[@xw3132]

This video is good for explaining the documented history of the conflict between China and Taiwan, but a lot of underlying geopolitical factors are missing. US also plays an important role in the China-Taiwan confict. US has a huge interest building millitary and economic bonds with Taiwan since 1950s. The reasons are: 1. Taiwan can be used to contain the growth of communist China, the country deemed to be a threat as soon as its inception. 2. A prosperous weathly capitalist Taiwan will shake the confidence in communist in mainland China. Meanwhile, the Chinese leaders are extremely worried about the influence of the US. They cannot afford Taiwan to be independent and import US weapons, even build US military base. For Taiwanese, most want to side with the US because Taiwan is westernized pretty well. On the other hand, mainland China is giving out political favors (trade deals, business opportunities) and also threatening a war for Taiwan to not pick a side. The bottomline is, what seems to be the conflict between China and Taiwan is actually the conflict between China and the US. Every time when the China-US relationship worsens, Taiwan makes the news.

[@cometjetter]

The US sees Taiwan as her unsinkable aircraft carrier in her possible with mainland China.

[@FlyingDoctorC]

Ccp has to be grateful to USA. Until USA allowed it into the trade network and eventually, WTO and WHO China economy as entire country was nothing compared to Taiwan. Even giving CCP China a permanent seat on the board of United Nations. USA wanted to give China the means to modernize in hopes the Chinese people would promote Democracy just like they did in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. communist China have killed more Chineses when any invading country in it history. Chinese fleeing the CCP have created success in Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Vietnam(when it existed). So the problem is at the core the CCP government that initially wanted to wipe and destroy all ancient and old Chinese history ( Destruction of Four Olds Campaign by Mao) now trying to use that same history to exert control at any means, at any cost to it own citizens.

[@FlyingDoctorC]

USA is not scare if there is fair economic competition…look at Japan in 1980s….top companies and most expensive places, golf course, hotels, were in Japan not New York.

[@canto_v12]

This is the clear underlying reason, yet one that neither side is willing to openly admit. Based.

[@Jiidwag]

The USA & UK had systematically engineered the “conflict” btwn Taiwan & China for 75yrs by US military backed totalitarian brutal regime since WW2 for a future war event to carry out AmeriKKKan imperialist objective

[@suekis2903]

From what i have gone through, Tsai is the one who identifies herself as both Chinese and Taiwanese. When she was young, she referred herself to being a chinese with a shift to Taiwanese now. Generally, Elder generation refer themselves to be chiense while the younger refer themselves to be Taiwanese. Besides the media, the political system and the history, the education has played a very important role here.

[@suekis2903]

From what i understood, Taiwan is de facto independent as a part of Republic of China but also a part of People's republic China. I mean both parts are reasonable, but China will not give up the possibility to reunite (if it gives up, there is no way to claim it back). It would be wise of the US not to provoke and use Taiwan as a political instrument too much to stir the status quo. It is risky and also gives China the opportunity to move the line forward. anyway thanks for your video.

[@charliecheng3340]

One China policy makes Tsai Treasonous

[@zhen86]

@@suekis2903 Taiwan is not independent as long as it is part of ROC. If they want to gain independent, they will be gaining independences from ROC. Taiwan is not just Taiwan. The offshore islands as the people in Taiwan called, they do not like to be called Taiwanese.

[@User-sssss-543]

In Taiwan, you are Chinese before you become the president , after that you’re Taiwanese! XD

[@xggong8261]

Looking at it as a Chinese, Taiwan and the mainland were previously fighting over who was really China, and then the title of China was replaced by the mainland, and Taiwan's native consciousness gradually awakened. Because of the political system, Taiwan could not accept reunification with the authoritarian mainland, but could not break away from the "Republic of China" China relationship, so in order to differentiate, it had to call itself Taiwanese.

[@jau3194]

This narrator did not mention that around 1895-1900 Japanese military in Taiwan killed about 300 thousand Taiwanese when the islanders resisted the occupation by Japan. At that time, there were about 3 million population. That means about 1 in 10 population was killed. During WW-II US airplanes bombarded Taiwan and killed about 5 thousands civilians.

[@jchanmcse]

The most disaster happened in Taiwan at that time is the Japanese invasion and occupation They killed millions of people in Taiwan brutally when they resisted. Numerous head-chops and rapes were committed by the Japanese at that time.

[@Bk6346]

The narrator isn’t that smart

[@Leelel504]

I doubt they were educated about this at school

[@emperorarima3225]

As tragic is this was, it wasn't that important for the story. He mentioned that the Japanese attempted to conquer the native people, and they fought back, giving the Japanese a bloody nose. Anyone who paid attention would have known the Japanese weren't just a happy friendly force for good and business and some war/conflict went down. You people do not contradict the video's messages, simply adding to it. I dont think the majority of the audience here has a favourable view of Imperial Japan and can fill in the blanks anyway. And the narrator specifically framed everything before the 90's as colonization and domination (including Japan). I am sure to many indigenous Taiwanese this situation is still not ideal but we dont need to pretend that because we know something that wasnt mentioned in the video, that the video is stupid unless you want a video that goes all the way back to the Zhou covering every piece of Chinese history trivia or some shit. 下次你们应该慢慢看😂

[@junct]

​@@emperorarima3225 "you people?" 🤨

[@weedric4091]

International politics is based on national interests. Just as the United States would not allow a Soviet military presence in Cuba, just as it does today with the Russo-Ukrainian war. This is the reality of international politics, no matter how righteous the narrative behind it may be.

[@kylint7683]

Ryan is making the topic like Taiwan Aboriginals fighting for independence, well they only account for like

[@kylint7683]

It's also interesting to notice that the Taiwanese aboriginals are actually much more pro status quo and even pro unification some times compared to the rest of the population in Taiwan, Why? because they actually think the rest of the "outsider" STEAL Taiwan from them, so they would rather ally with the "enemy" :p.

[@xueueux]

if you kept brainwash since you are an infant, of course you will change their view. Actually Taiwan before US Sun flower coup in 2014...around end of 2000-2014 a lot had started shifted their view because Taiwan government see at the end of 2000, China rise is like no other country. Also more and more Taiwanese went to Mainland to work or to start business or even live. KMT government started to talk with the CPC Mainland. However, this was used by opposition to do sun flower coup that was also funded by US. Once DPP rule Taiwan in 2014, all voices that support reunification or status quo are actually silence. Couple media were shut by Tsai and DPP. School history lesson extremely change. If before 2000, their history lesson taught ancient China. During DPP rules, everyone were taught their history start in 1949. That is why newer generation always think they are "Taiwanese" some even believe they may not even have any Han Chinese DNA anymore, which definitely a joke! When most of Taiwanese actually lived in Taiwan started in 1949. Before that, they were all mainlanders!

[@4H46PvD]

So you think American are British and should be unified with the UK?

[@yanakal652]

​@@4H46PvD difference is Britain and America are miles apart

[@4H46PvD]

@@yanakal652 Taiwan and China are miles apart as well. Google it.

[@danielboey1312]

My friend, the so-called "Taiwanese language" is actually the Fujianese Min-nan dialect. It's exactly the same dialect spoken by the same Min-nan people across the Taiwan Straits. One can't tell the difference between the dialect spoken in Taipei & that spoken in Xiamen, China. The 2 main groups in Taiwan, the Min-nanese & the Hakka, migrated from Fujian & Guangdong a few centuries ago.

[@骑着熊猫去打酱油]

Taiwanese try hard to convince others believe that taiwan is country and taiwan has their language min-nan dialect. They want to create the " truth" to prove that Mainland China is lying.

[@mephisto2812]

Hokkien is one of the language my grandfather speaks and it is from the Southern Min. thanks for more info.

[@jchanmcse]

Basically, people in both Taiwan & Mainland China can speak the same language and understand each other. The so called Taiwanese language is basically a combination of Fukien and Quandong dialects. China has over hundreds of different dialects, but the majority ( or official ) one is called Pu Tung Hua. Pu Tung Hua means common and general language. The writing in Mainland China is the simplified Chinese characters while in Taiwan, Hong Kong etc. is the Traditional Chinese characters. Most Chinese people (except some) can understand both types of characters.

[@jessanandajoo]

06:20 so the Taiwanese referred to here was Southern Min language? What about the Formosan languages?

[@MrKbtor2]

Americans and British speak the same language but in the colonies they realized that their values and interests were different and thus separated. Just because two populations speak similar or even the exact same language means nothing towards their destinies.

[@reee1397]

As a Taiwanese thank you for the time and effort to make this video. Few Westerners can understand the complex relationship between Taiwan and China in such a detailed and correct way. If foreigners ask about this, I will recommend them to watch this video.😀

[@vliusha]

Long long ago

[@user-zcm379RenJiTang]

correct way? lots of info. here are skewed.

[@iamthe1234567890]

You are not "Taiwanese". That identity is a myth, like "transwomen". You are in fact Chinese.

[@reee1397]

@@iamthe1234567890 "That's what Xi said" 😅

[@iamthe1234567890]

@@reee1397 lol obviously I'm not that guy. And I've lived outside China since I was a child, but I'm just saying. I'd have to side with the mainland position on this. Tbf, the worst that would happen in most people's lives after the CCP takes control would be being blocked off from the rest of the Internet without vpn. I live in a "rich" Western "democracy" where millions have to rely on charity food banks so they don't go hungry and go into debt to heat their house, so even "moderate common prosperity" would sound like paradise to a lot of people.

[@svcupc]

The party Ryan mentioned that ruled China and took over Taiwan from Japan after WWII, the KuoMin-Tang, literally translates to the "Citizen Party", is usually referred to by historians as the "nationalist" (vs the communist). This nationalist party is now a minority party in Taiwan on the national level, but recently won by a huge margin a local election for mayors and city councils.

[@INTJ791]

40 percent is not minority,

[@forbiddenchannel4901]

Definitely not minority. Taiwan is a two-party system. Which means it is mainly composed of two parties. That is, the DPP and the KMT.

[@svcupc]

@@forbiddenchannel4901 by the US standards, the KMT is the minority, simply because it's not the majority in the Legislative Yuan (like the house of reps in the US). The DPP is in power and holds the majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan. Therefore, the KMT is the current minority party in Taiwan. I'm not talking about a statistical or purely linguistic definition of the word here.

[@bartonlee3594]

Funny how KMT is now the one party in Taiwan that has good relations with the Xi God. the CPC and KMT used to be dire enemies.

[@billsugg9564]

Dude! I’ve watched a lot of videos about the history and relationship between the two countries...a lot (and have lived in both). This is probably the most well balanced, non-emotional , non-partisan, fact-based explanation of the issue. Once again, you prove to have a level head and no agenda other than dissemination of the facts. Thank you, sir. We need more tubers like you out there.

[@reigak6599]

Well said

[@lisaz2530]

over 95% of Taiwan's population of 23.4 million consists of Han Chinese, while 2.3% are Taiwanese indigenous peoples, rest of them are Minority groups from south china. The minorities Chinese and Han Chinese immigranted between 17th - 19th century. The 211 incident happened between the governmen Vs people(included all races in Taiwan), not Han VS indigenous Taiwanese. The Han are often divided into three subgroups: the Hoklo,(From Fujian province), the Hakka, 3.7%(from provinces in South mainland China), and waishengren around 15%(or "mainlanders" from other provinces of china). So, when he said they refused to speak Taiwanese, Does he means they should speak Hokkien, Hakka dialect or indigenous people's language only? What exactly is Taiwanese? Most of Taiwan people speak Mandarin with taiwan accent as their mother tongue language. They have same culture as Han Chinese or Minority groups of Chinese in mainland. The meaning of "waishengren" in Mandarin: Wai means"outside", shen: "province" ren: "people". Waishenren are people or people 's parents and grandparents who immigranted to Taiwan after 1945. Even the children born in Taiwan still can be called "waishenren", not "benshenren", because their parents or grandparents immigranted after 1945. Only for those who immigranted before 1945 can call themselves "benshenren"(Local). "Ben" means "origin". This video go through some part of fact only. When you missed some part of fact, you can't see the whole picture.

[@StrawHat83]

Except Taiwan's government is the legal inheritor of China's legitimate government usurped by the CCP.

[@reigak6599]

@@StrawHat83 but the Taiwan government doesn’t want to be the real China any more.

[@StrawHat83]

@@reigak6599 The Taiwan people don't want to be part of one-party rule. Taiwan is the real China.

[@cismo88]

One detail may have been ignored or missed by Ryan, which is that when Kuo Min Tang retreated to the island Taiwan it was already one of the 35 provinces of China, whether it was ruled by Kuo Min Tang or by the Communist regime. That is an important reason for both sides of the Strait to sustain on their claim that both Taiwan and the Mainland China belong to the same China. The only disagreement between the two regimes is "Who is the legitimate regime of the devided county, which even up to date is a unagreed issue.

[@purikurix]

Japan gave up its claims on Formosa, which was integral part of its territory and admistered as a prefecture, to no one. This makes the issue of territorial claims complicated especially with regard to international law. I don't know how territorial aquisition of inhabited territory without recognized government could happen lawfully after the 1940s. To my knowledge ROC just extended its force there without any further process.

[@canto_v12]

@@purikurix one argument that has been used is that the ROC succeeded Qing China which did own Taiwan. So when Japan vacated its colonies after WW2, Taiwan returned to the ROC based on this State Succession theory.

[@chozer1]

But the communists has actually never held Taiwan directly so their claim is weak at best

[@ceasar8679]

​@@canto_v12 Taiwan is independent. Just give up. Historically it is even owned by many.

[@canto_v12]

@@ceasar8679 give up what? I have no claim to make. Only sharing theories that others have published. I know very well what Taiwan is like and what its diplomatic situation is.

[@leothelion6075]

Thank you Ryan, this is much more balanced than what's out there & proves that most of the so called "China Watchers" who talk about Taiwan haven't even done 1/100th the amount of research you've done on the complexity of this issue. As someone from Taiwan who used to be pro independence but am now pro-unification (yes yes I'm in minority), I'll say this: 1) most countries recognize China's position on Taiwan; what's happened is that the US is now using Taiwan as leverage against China (divide & conquer strategy) & a place to sell used crappy weapons at a great price, but also the US suddenly woke up & realized it couldn't risk Chinese gaining control of semiconductors; the US does not really believe in any of this freedom & democracy nonsense. The US still recognizes the One China principle, and if it doesn't, it should come out and say so directly. 2) I personally think China's claim to Taiwan is much stronger than Japan's claim to Okinawa (aka Ryukyu) & US claim to Hawaii. If we want to challenge their claim, how about we look at how hypocritical we are with our own claims on land annexed by us. 3) taiwanese identity is complex - we are like 97% han chinese. After i started working in the mainland, even visiting ancestral home, and realizing how culturally connected we are to China, i think it's a complete joke for us to think that we are somehow not Chinese. The Chinese I've met in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, basically everywhere else don't have an issue with identifying as Chinese, yet I feel now that the TW govt (w/ US & Japanese psy-ops help) is trying to brainwash this identity away. My sense of Chinese identity has only gotten stronger now that I've been seeing so much anti Chinese racism expressed by Americans, telling me to go back to my country & calling me a Chinese [epithet]. Most Americans probably can't even find Taiwan on a map. So yes, I look forward to Taiwan going back to China, and I think it's pretty inevitable anyway.

[@Pukimayui]

U are just stupid. Connected with Chinese people doesn’t mean it is to their gov. While I agreed that I feel the same when I talk to Chinese people, I felt we are the same family. However the ruler is diff, it’s fucking ccp. Taiwan will die just like how Hong Kong if it reunited. You’re basically trashing ur home for asking for reunification to CCP. I would agree for Reunification if China is democratic.

[@dimitaru.8408]

1) China wants to take Taiwan in order to establish its dominance in the Pacific. They also view the island as leverage against the US, the only difference is they wouldn't let the Taiwanese govern themselves. 2) Whataboutism argument. 3) Doesn't matter if the people don't wanna be ruled by a dictatorial one party state that is communist. You look forward to war erupting in Taiwan by Chinese agression?

[@leothelion6075]

@@dimitaru.8408 Are you Taiwanese or do you live in Taiwan? You should talk to people who actually live here 1. If you were actually able to read Chinese, it's less about strategic value than about righting a historical wrong. 2. Whataboutism? Cheap cop-out that doesnt address pure American hypocrisy. Literally America's #1 export 3. Taiwan isn't a democracy. We literally shut down a KMT-affiliated TV station and actively cancel people who are pro China or pro-unification, subject them to harassment, fines, even jailtime. Everyone here knows DPP corrupt as hell and have lotsa $$$ in mainland and $$$$ in the US.

[@jimmylee1776]

Very well said.👏👏. The real TaIwanese are the indigenous people of Taiwan. They are less than 10% of the population. There are many Japanese disguised as Chinese. After Taiwan was returned to China thousands of Japanese remained in Taiwan & changed their names to Chinese names. The current President of Taiwan (Tsai Ing-Wen) is Japanese. She wants Taiwan to be independent so that with the help of the US, Taiwan will be returned to Japan. You must get rid of her at the next election

[@aressong6836]

@@dimitaru.8408 CIA TROLL

[@LuisDiuk]

Ryan you are making a great journalistic work, no one make it as well documented and informed as you, congratulations

[@kevinsiu4956]

You ignored a simpler reason why the aborigines held on to Eastern Taiwan against the colonialists. It's less to do with being hard core and more to do with simple geography. It's hard to build anything where typhoons hit all the time. Taiwan's center is all mountains, providing a natural barrier against them, which is why over 95% of Taiwans population lives on the west coast.

[@realryanchapman]

That's the explanation I saw researching this too, but balanced against their tenacity to defend their territory against the colonialists. Geography alone doesn't explain why the aborigines held the east for so long, especially against an industrialized power like Japan.

[@kevinsiu4956]

@@realryanchapman 75 plus years post Japanese occupation has seen very little change in development of the East coast. Taiwan has had at least 1 typhoon either make landfall or graze it in 55 out of the last 56 years. Most areas of the world where hurricanes/typhoons hit are flat. Taiwan being 90% mountainous/hilly topology equates to mudslides in areas overly farmed or developed when typhoons hit.. These are far more dangerous than just heavy wind and rain. The simple fact is that these mudslides are far more prevalent on its East side. Geography is by far and away the biggest factor in why 23 out of 24 million live on the west side of the island.

[@realryanchapman]

@@kevinsiu4956 Right, but the question isn't 'why do most people live on the west side of Taiwan,' the question is 'why didn't these powerful colonial powers (like the Qing and Japanese) establish governance over the entire island of Taiwan for hundreds of years?' Geography is part of the answer, but imposing geography didn't prevent colonial powers elsewhere in the world from controlling the entire territory that they set out to control. The Qing and Japanese both tried to take the east from the aborigines and failed due to fierce resistance.

[@kevinsiu4956]

@@realryanchapman The answer to why most people live on the west coast does at least partially answer why the colonial powers failed to establish total control. Lack of incentive. Look at a map of Taiwan and you'll notice there's very little flat coastal land area on the east side. What little there is only goes 5 to 10 miles inland before you're right up against mountains. The east coast of Taiwan is nicknamed the landslide capital of the world.

[@irrationalpie3143]

@@realryanchapman Similar situation is with Hawaii eastern side (all islands). Although no typhoons, it rains all the time.

[@SpinSurgery]

New favorite channel. you really seem to go out of your way to eliminate bias as much as possible. Plz continue these types of videos discussing political conflicts and their history that gives a birds eye view.

[@samsmith9232]

Just clicked on this and can’t wait to watch. Some incredibly high quality content in my opinion and I’m always excited for the next video

[@shangchi_ai]

Fun facts: Taiwan still uses mainland city names to name its navy ships; in their constitution the legit capital of Taiwan is still Nanjing, which is now the capital of Jiansu province of China. Taipei is only a temporary capital according to Taiwan regime.

[@rabournm]

Probably because they know eventually the mainlanders will come to their senses and overthrow the CCP, then unification can happen. When China is a true democracy.

[@Shakespear1112]

'Taipei is only a temporary capital according to Taiwan regime' This part is only true in pre-2000 in KMT ruling periods.

[@sukishiki]

​@@Shakespear1112but history is important.

[@The_Gaming_Pear]

Man I love this channel. Especially that its 0 propaganda only neutral facts and dofferent sides of the arguments.

[@djkollar1]

Probably the best explanation of this tricky issue that I’ve seen on KZbin.

[@honantong]

Although forgot to mention, DPP changed the history books of Taiwan, purposely removing history with China, and many officials actually have ties with Japan and US or are Japanese converted into Chinese names. Many Taiwanese dont even think they are ethnically Chinese. although 98% are. As leading party you control what people see and hear, most of pro unification media etc have been banned by DPP from TV.

[@reigak6599]

I agree as a Chinese

[@tl8525]

not that tricky. Taiwan is china

[@jer-bear48]

Please keep up your work! They are a must watch! You try to envelope a deep perspective and understanding and it really shows in your videos.

[@ilovejingle]

I think it’s worth mentioning in the constitution of both PRC and ROC，there is only one China, ROC(Taiwan)s constitution includes all China as their territory (including Mongolia) 😂 Taiwan is a province in both constitution

[@SurmaSampo]

I have seen a lot of videos on the subject of Taiwan yet yours is the first to actually explain the history and perspective of either side let alone both.

[@jmarshell1]

Another very fine presentation. Historically accurate and well nuanced, I really enjoyed this examination of the China /Taiwan relationship.

[@icebaby6714]

This is not biased on either way and is not like MSM’s anti-China propaganda talk.

[@isaacbauman8174]

You have been misled about the fact that there is no country called Taiwan. There is only one country called the Republic of China.

[@scammicus7110]

Excellent piece of work Mr. Chapman. I really appreciate the clarity you brought to this issue for me, as in so many of the subjects you've addressed.

[@DjinnandTonik]

Nice work. I think you should have mentioned that the USA maintains informal military presence in Taiwan, which is a big driving factor behind all the talk of integrity and security. Imagine how US would feel if China had a military presence in Cuba. When the Soviets were, the world almost ended. Personally my heart is with the Taiwanese but this factor is crucial...

[@FledgedPhoenix]

It's different. Cuba was never our own territory. US has a Military presence in all of Asia because of the Korean War and because Japan cannot use their military outside of their own country. The Philippines have been invaded by several regimes and can't defend themselves against the might of imperialist countries. After the Baatan death march the US should always have a presence there to keep them safe. This is why Russia has relations with South America. US imperialism threatened South America. Because China has a past trauma they want to do so much to get back at every foreign country possible even if they aren't to blame. China is doing too much and is no better than any other imperialist country of the past. They need to stop stealing land from the Philippines and taking ports from other smaller countries with loans they know they will never pay back. All imperialism from every country is wrong. The whole world needs to end imperialism for good. All borders should be respected from now on. Taiwan has been independent long enough. They deserve to be theirs own sovereign country whether China likes it or not. Democracy is the present and the future.

[@gravegaming2023]

If The Us and China switched places and roles, japan and south Korea wouldve been glassed decades ago

[@chrismccaffery1091]

@@gravegaming2023 Exactly. South Korea and Japan would not be free countries, and would not be prosperous and as liberalized as it is to this day, thanks to the United States. I agree the U.S. is no Saint, and certainly has its flaws and has done wrongdoings. But a world order under Washington is nowhere near as dystopian and hellish as a totalitarianism world based order under Bejing. Just look at what Bejing did with its satellite state North Korea since the Korean War, and likewise look at what Washington did with its satellite state South Korea, since the Korean War. The differences are extremely stark in contrast.

[@HairLessBush]

​​​@@FledgedPhoenix taiwan is not indipedent (UN) litaraly says so basically all countries (including USA)do not recognize taiwan, Not as independent but as part of china only a few hand full of small islands recognize Taiwan as independent. By your logic the donbas milita has had gotten separat from Ukraine for a while and is indipedent shoud Ukraine just let donbas goo?

[@GhostScout42]

@@FledgedPhoenix look where democracy has gotten you

[@Ausiedundan]

I’ve been fascinated by the China Taiwan conflict for a long time. Hands down this is the best explanation and most fair presentation I’ve seen yet!

[@malaysiaterdedah3934]

Trust me, it is neither fair nor does it gives the full picture. It is a very biased and skewed western perspective.

[@Ausiedundan]

@@malaysiaterdedah3934 could you explain the China side more then? Id love to hear!

[@malaysiaterdedah3934]

@@Ausiedundan There never was a Taiwanese identity. This video sneakily tries to portray China as some crazy imperialist power stuck in the past to obtain "former" glory and power hungry to subjugate native " Taiwanese". But there is no such thing! Taiwanese ARE Chinese. Unless you account for the "natives" who are 2% of the population. More than 90% of Taiwan are Han Chinese from various parts of China. There is NO taiwanese language like what the video tries to portray. People in Taiwan of course speak mandarin and also Minan, a fujian dialect spoken by people in China. We speak that too here in Southeast Asia (Btw, many many people in SouthEast Asia, India, Middle East understand what is going on and is pro china. China is not alone.) From the perspective of a SouthEast Asian, I think pro independent people in Taiwan are VERY naive and selfish. They don't understand how difficult it is to survive in such a darwinian world. Also, its nothing to do with being the center of the world BS. China was never a warmongering imperialist. Taiwan IS a part of China and how can you concede your sovereignty? BOTH Taiwan and China claims to be the legitamate government of China. It's just that one side lost and the Americans have funneled various resources to keep it that way so that they can influence china. The one who wants war is the west, not China. Look at how western nations influence any problems a country has. Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine, Palestine just to name a few. The only reason why Taiwan is a problem now is because China is strong and the west wants to contain it. I urge you to stop browsing western propaganda and look for other sources from around the world, you will have a different perspective. Majority of Chinese understand the sensitivity of the situation and are more than willing to have a peaceful resolution one day. But the Americans are doing all they can to push for war, which China can only respond why heightening tensions. War in China will affect us here in SEA drastically and we hope the Americans will have some confidence in their abilities to compete fairly and work on their own country before trying to start war.

[@hiskakun2276]

@@malaysiaterdedah3934 how much Winnie the pooh chan pays you to spread propaganda?

[@huming66]

Facts about Taiwan that ignored by a smart mind like Ryan, by accident? - The population migration from China to Taiwan was recorded as early as AD-230, over 1000 years earlier than the 16th century - the most (>95%) people living in Taiwan today is of the Han Chinese ethnicity originate from China, which inherited lots of historical and culture relation with China. President Tsai is also Han Chinese, her family prospered significantly during Japan's ruling time. - there was only one "228 incident" kind of bad killing event during the rule of "Kuomindang", comparing with half million people killed during his so-called Japan's "modernize the place" - the overwhelming public opinion (to be independent) of the Confederacy did not stop the American Civil War to unite the United States - "thought highly at themselves" is a good thing for any people / county / civilization, as long as it is not used as excuse to conquer, colonize and enslave others, or to stop to progress - If Mao can decide, the Korean war would not happen ... the new weak China did not want any external war while facing big internal issues - there is unsettled Chinese civil war between PRC and RoC (Taiwan). "Taiwan is part of China" is clearly stated in the Constitution of PRC and the Constitution of RoC - behind almost every hot conflicts in today's world, there has been the evil shadow of "divide and rule" to benefit from inciting hatred, it seems the talent (may be in its blood) of some people

[@snowyy.5275]

Chinese think of Taiwan as a satellite territory of an ancient civilization rooted on the mainland. Taiwanese think of Taiwan as the epicenter of a localized perspective of history. Both are forms of national myth making. How true any of these are doesn’t really matter. Myth making is all national identity is: the stories we tell ourselves about our identity and relative place in the world. But it does shed some light on the difference of perspectives

[@Squared_Table]

TLDR something something big stick diplomacy will decide

[@snowyy.5275]

@@Squared_Table Absolutely. Taiwan's future will ultimately be determined by China's relationship with SEA neighbors and US-China relations. Independence is only ever given to those who are capable of keeping it. Everything else is pretext

[@jadengrant]

Ryan, I love your work. Calm, confident, and you tell the facts. I do trust your analysis.

[@howellPan]

Excellent, excellent video! Extremely informative yet completely unbiased, this is a must watch for anyone who's interested in the history between China and Taiwan

[@codyshi4743]

This is really well-written and well-researched. You explained the situation of the issue very well. I really like how unbiased this video is, in explaining the situation and the feeling of both sides.

[@DK-le3to]

This video has a gross omission that Han Chinese has established settlement on Taiwan since Song Dynasty, which was officially annexed by the Southern Song Dynasty and existed as an admisnistrative area during the Yuan Dynasty, which used it as one of the staging areas for Khublai's failed 2nd invasion of Japan in 1281. Given the depth of research in Ryan's other videos, I find it hard to believe that framing the Dutch as the first ruler of Taiwan was an unintential mistake and damages the image of neutrality he tries to maintain.

[@Joseph-me6nv]

Thank you Ryan, this video is extremely informative and insightful.

[@colinjudge1261]

I really appreciate your clear and impartial exploration into these topics. You state the history (as briefly as is possible), and relay the current stances of the relevant parties, in their own words where available. It’s so refreshing to be given such a synopsis, free of bias. I loved your video on “the golden age” of news, and I wish there were more sources for this kind of clean reporting in modern journalism and political analysis. Thank you for the time and effort you put into these videos.

[@mikebane2866]

This was hardly impartial lol

[@colinjudge1261]

@@mikebane2866 At which point did Ryan inject his own opinion on the matter?

[@leonal522]

So the keywords are *“making sense”, "twists to reality"* and *"uneducated western assumptions".* Let me attempt to give you a more radical perspective in a grander scope along those veins if you don't mind. See, the Chinese Nation or civilization or culture has been existing “undisturbed” since 500+ yrs before Jesus was born totaling 2500+ years as a unified country. 70+ years before Columbus set sail on his great expedition China’s Admiral Zhenghe had already completed 7 grand scale expeditions between 1405 and 1433 covering as far as Eastern Africa and the entirety of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean(more than 70,000 nautical miles, more than three times the circumference of the earth) resulting in far-reaching ocean voyages to the coastal territories and islands in and around the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond. Before that Kublai Khan’s government had sent his ministers to the island to declare governance in 1292 and subsequently installed jurisdiction over Taiwan in Penghu in1335. China could have colonized all of the above easily if it so chose but it only did so to Taiwan in the 1600s. Why? you might ask. Well because China at that time had no need to do so. The *reality* was so *untwisted* that it was almost oblivious to it and the majority who inhabited the island were mostly their own compatriots AKA the Han people. See how things *make sense* to the Chinese? Where inhabited by my own people I will *assume* mine but I will not touch where populated by others, unlike the Europeans. However, all had changed since the invasion from the West. The above connects to Ryan's video at 0:58 ( I do recommend you click and watch the video again before continuing reading ) Ryan's video does have a Chinese perspective which I appreciate but unlike many in the comment section who exalted him with all kinds of praises, I would like to point out that his entire logic is still under the Westen Paradigm established through 500 years of colonial history, which completely and naturally *makes* perfect *sense* to you but doesn’t to most Chinese who have had no choice but to put up with such arrangements and logic, until it becomes as strong as the Great Powers from the West that is. The same can be said about the Johnsons line and McMahon line at the Sino-Indian border.

[@colinjudge1261]

@@clarkl7027 Thanks for your reply. I don't feel that he "failed to mention" the first point. He never did a demographic breakdown, as it's not particularly relevant to the political opinions of the people. During the brief history, he described how there was various colonisations and annexations, and how for hundreds of years now it was settlers from mainland China and their descendants who have lived there. But just as settlers/colonisers moved from Europe to the Americas, and the populations there remain majority ethno-European, doesn't have any bearing on whether, say, Brazil should be "unified" with Portugal today. I would also argue strongly against the idea that Taiwanese and Chinese share "exactly the same culture". An island nation with centuries of influence from various political powers, combined with the comparatively recent split from the communist ideals of mainland china are clear differences to point to, culturally. On your second point, the fact that the people of Taiwan predominantly speak a variation on the Hokkien language from Fujian is no surprise, due to the (again, clearly mentioned) large-scale settlement of Taiwan by China hundreds of years ago. I had no expectation from watching this video that the settled people decided to invent an entirely new language. Ryan quoted a source describing how the KMT rulers "refused to speak Taiwanese", as they insisted on speaking in Mandarin instead. That was the only time the language of Taiwan was raised, and it's a relevant point. Mandarin is not a Hokkien dialect, so they are appreciably distinct. On your third point, the reason that they've changed their national identity since the 90's might have something to do with the fact that they've only had a democracy since the 1990's? As clearly explained in the video, the KMT had ruled Taiwan since the Japanese had been defeated. And seeing as the KMT clearly considered themselves to be "Chinese", and even after losing the civil war with Mao and his revolutionaries, had plans to "retake" the mainland (as openly stated in the video)... the KMT ruled Taiwan effectively as dictators, with tight restrictions on speech. Saying that the DPP "controlled the media to brainwash Taiwanese" into wanting independence is laughable, when the previous political power had overtly and violently controlled people's ability to express their desires for self-determination. The Taiwanese have only been able to express themselves since the 90's, and since the 90's they have been expressing that they would like independence from China. Both of these points are facts. You can decide yourself whether they are important facts in whether or not Taiwan should have independence or be part of China. But whatever opinion you have, does not change these facts, as they are in and of themselves impartial. A comment like "DPP tempered the textbook and controlled the media, brainwashing Taiwanese people after they took office", said without any backing is not impartial. That difference is why, as I said in my original comment, I appreciate Ryan's videos. Anyway, thanks again for your comment, even if we disagree.

[@colinjudge1261]

@@clarkl7027 While I appreciate that you took the time to write such a detailed response, unfortunately I'm not pursuing a conversation of backing-up or rebutting the various claims made by each party against each other. Once again, my original comment was that Ryan's video gave a factual and balanced look at the situation as it stands. Some of the claims you are making are exactly the opposite of what I am here for. How much ethnicity and cultural similarities/differences should be factors in self-governance of geographically distinct groups of people is a matter of fierce debate. Just ask Russia and Ukraine. How ethnically and culturally distinct do people have to be before they suddenly gain the option of independent rule? Should the Republic of Ireland default to being part of the UK by virtue of the cultures being "more similar than different"? On a side note, saying that Taiwanese eat "Chinese Food" is a rather funny statement, as China, being as large and populous as it is, does not have one fixed cuisine. People in all regions of the country have quite distinct foods. Whether you consider Taiwan to be a region of China or an independent state, it equally has its own distinct food and food culture. Regarding Mandarin being the official language of Taiwan since the Ming dynasty... I doubt that's true as Mandarin only became the official language of China in the early 1900's. I'll defer to you if you have more knowledge on the topic, but I would still say that something being the "official language" does not settle the matter, as authorities imposing a chosen language on the population has happened all over the world. I don't even know how to respond to your final point. I'd be happy to hear a non-biased account of any propaganda the DPP may or may not be injecting into the education system. But I can't take any claims made by you seriously, as you very clearly have a pre-existing stance on this. Stating that the DPP shapes the textbooks of their country to help influence pro-independence while completely ignoring the absolute totalitarian control that the CCP has over both the education system and the press in China is disingenuous in the context of a discussion about un-biased reporting. The CCP has been overtly re-writing the textbooks in Hong Kong to favour their policies, for one easy example. Feel free to reply again if you wish, but as I said at the beginning of this comment, I do not have the interest (or frankly, the expertise) to continue a debate on this matter, so please don't take it as an insult if I don't reciprocate.

[@yyu7269]

I don't really like most videos introducing Taiwan and China issue. However, this is an amazing video that clearly explained the history and principle of both sides. You must spend a lot of time on this, appreciate it! Will support your other videos too🥰

[@dpeng678]

63, born and live in Taiwan my whole life. What Ryan says is fact based, quality presentation. Bravo!

[@dengist8172]

Never ask a Taiwanese the full name of Taiwan

[@entertainmentjoke2871]

Traditional Chinese: 中華民國 Romanize: Zhong Hua Ming Guo Direct translate: Chinese Republic Official English: Republic of China Unofficial: Taiwan (ROC) Rebel: Taiwan 😊

[@JosephW-vx5ic]

Maybe you can tell us your answer 😂

[@bobmorane4926]

I think you should have made a comparison between China's stance over sovereignty with other similar issues going on around the world and wondered if China's stance was really out of place as suggested by many in the Western world. Like they say, do as I say but not as I do . The immediate example that comes to mind is Catalonia where the local population has expressed in 2 referendums their willingness to separate completely from Spain and yet the leaders of that referendum were deemed criminals and chased around Europe as mere criminals to be brought back to face justice in Spain for inciting secession. Is there more to say ? That's just one case and if you look at the difficulties Scotland has faced in acrrying out a referendum, its not much different. You could examine the fate of Corsica and you'd probably find out the same and Quebec is also in that basket where nationalistic forces can re ignite the movement toward separation. So, was force exerted in the case of Catalonia ? Absolutely. But then, Spain is part of the Western alliance and doesn't face military restraint with tens of military bases surrounding it ready to strike. Food for thought.

[@bordedup546]

Yes except the fact that those countries are all democracies where the government was elected by the people. The CCP is a genocidal autocracy, which is completely unaccountable to it's people, trying to take over a fledgling democracy in Taiwan, which is actually accountable to it's people. Those two systems are totally incompatible as the the CCP demonstrated in Hong Kong. Secondly, those examples aren't great. Scotland and Quebec have had legit referendums on independence and both voted no. Catalonia is however a good example for your argument and so is the American civil war. Undoubtedly those countries are economically stronger with those territories staying within the country as they've developed together. Taiwan on the other has developed economically independently from China for over a century with a brief spat between the end of WW2 and the civil war

[@bobmorane4926]

​@@bordedup546 You basically showed how undemocratic you are and how hypocritical you come across by saying that 'You' can decide that it will be better for Catalonia to stay part of Spain for their own good but Taiwan for some obscure reason is economically stronger and should be allowed to separate. You know what Global South observers would call that : Discrimination, plain and simple. You , westerners think you can make the rule, bend them as you want and get away with it as you make exceptions for your cherished projects that will upset your own little world. You call yourself democracies as you jail leaders of a democracy (Catalonia) that freely decided to separate by a majority and you suddenly close your eyes on this criminal behavior and want to explain it as paternalistic as possible, "It would be good economically that Catalonia remain inside Spain, that's why we will use force to jail the leaders and render void the referendum that they voted to separate from Spain and you have the guts to call yourself a democracy. Man, that's the most undemocratic and disgusting statements showing how little thoughts were put in replying to my statements above. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is democracy. Ask Edward Snowden or Julian Assange whether they consider the West a democracy !!! Btw, there's no comparison in what happened to Catalonia and Hong Kong. The Chinese have every right to arrest anyone who're trying to formant trouble in Hong Kong and that's what they did.

[@bordedup546]

@@bobmorane4926 You can't have so much anguish about Catalonia, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and then hand-wave away what China did in Hong Kong. That's hypocracy in it's purist form. I also take grave exception to the term "global south". I was born and lived in India so I actually know what it's like, despite your presumption to the contrary. You can pretend that the global south is a powerful unified front opposing the west, similar to how united countries within the EU are, but that's just false. "Global south" is a made up term that hold no weight outside of Russian & Chinese propaganda. I don't agree with how Edward Snowden or Julian Assange were treated nor with the fact that Catalonia wasn't allowed to be independent. These are of course mistakes but that doesn't mean that those countries aren't democratic, like you seem to be implying. This is an incredibly very weak argument. I never said that Catalonia would be economically better off within Spain, I was actually referring more to the American civil war example. What I was trying to say is that undoubtedly America is a much stronger economy because it didn't split into two separate countries. For this reason some democratic states allow secession, UK & Canada, while others don't, Spain & USA. Taiwan & China have been economically independent for over a century, so the above argument doesn't apply to this dispute. I can see why the CCP feels as strongly about secession as the USA does but those two countries are very different. The CCP wants Taiwan for imperial reasons and if they get it they will no doubt supress the wonderful free & democratic civil society that Taiwan has built for itself. On the other hand, residents of the American South enjoy all of the same rights as their north counterparts and are equals within the union, not subordinates. This is the difference between a democracy and a genocidal dictatorship like the CCP. This is why despite being a somewhat legitimate claim by the CCP, I will never support their ambition to take Taiwan. I despise the tyrannical CCP and I suport Taiwan for the vibrant democracy they've built, despite the CCP's best efforts. In a dispute between a democractic government and a dictatorship over who gets to survive, I will always support the democracy because at the end of the day, their citizens actually voted for them.

[@bobmorane4926]

​@@bordedup546 The way you you define democracy seems to be a made up term based on your limited understanding of what a democracy is and what a referendum means and you use tyranny freely without much thought of what it actually means. If you're from India, well the US has some real issues with the Indian democracy as used willy nilly by the Indians to be really proud of as the muslims in Kashmir or the Sikhs revolts are being crushed with the army. Blinken never misses a beat to remind the Indians about his concerns on the human rights issues in India. I think many in the Global South have trouble understanding those terms and they do not realize how brain washed they've been about democracy and tyranny as your statements and explanation clearly show. That's what I was trying to tell you, you still want to give a pass to what happened in Catalonia , but refuses to understand the hypocritical parallel with Taiwan or Hong Kong. You're clearly not rational in your thoughts or you cannot comprehend the irony in full view. And let me remind you that the hypocrisy isn't from China which isn't lecturing anybody else about how to solve their constitutional issues, but the West is always lecturing others even as they cannot even solve their own constitutional problems and show themselves to be dictatorial in solving their constitutionl roadblocks (by arresting the leaders for breaking the law) but guess what, you cannot appreciate the gravity of this action which you just want to minimize as a minor mistake when it's in fact much more serious coming from a country that declares itself a democracy.

[@bordedup546]

@@bobmorane4926 I'll reiterate: the global south doesn't exist; can you explain what the "global south" is so I can understand why you're so obsessed with it? Instead of going around in circles can you define democracy, explain why the US and Spain aren't ones and which countries are democracies according to you? Tyrannical is an apt description for the CCP: Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Mao's great leap forward and so on prove it. I've noticed that your arguments rely heavily on grievances with the West. If Blinkin is telling India it has human rights issues then so be it. I also think India has human rights issues, corruption, toxic news media, aggression towards Pakistan and more. A democracies main effort must be about facing it's problem head on rather than holding onto petty grievances against the West. You also keep repeating your grievance with Spain but what Spain did was legal because their constitutions explicitly prohibits secession and the Supreme Court arrested the Catalonian leaders on these grounds. Whether it was moral is a different question and I agree with you that it was not. You are also right to that the CCP can feel the same way about Taiwan and that it would be somewhat hypocritical to deny them that. However, your politics of grievances and hypocrisy is too simplistic to address the elephant in the room: the CCP wants to invade Taiwan, kill hundreds of thousands in the process, arrest it's rightfully elected leaders, violently suppress opposition, freedom of speech, reverse decades of progress by dismantling it's democracy forever and destroy what makes Taiwanese society so prosperous. You're telling me all of this is acceptable because you have some grievances with the West and because some countries in the West are hypocritical about secession? People like me aren't convinced by your arguments because they are insignificant when compared to the reality of the death, decimation of freedom and democracy that the CCP's invasion will bring. This is vital for you to address if you want to convince people that the CCP is right to want to invade Taiwan

[@salvadorsepulveda6415]

Very informative and educational, thank you

[@cathykeng]

Being Taiwanese, I have always failed to tell the stories without strong emotional attachment. Thank you for making this super informative and historically accurate video! I finally kinda understand where China is coming from lol. It feels very hopeless these days, but you put it beautifully: in taiwanese’s people’s mind, we’re tired from being claimed by foreign powers again and again. we want to be seen by the world as we are and treated with respect.

[@larrydavid5260]

But why do you see China as a foreign power?

[@yaya5tim]

@@larrydavid5260 because it is, Taiwan is not part of PROC but ROC, and now Taiwan wants to be just Taiwan, so they can get rid of the "C" (China) in that ROC and PROC

[@deadbydaylight3168]

it's not foreign though. both prc and roc are literally part of the chinese nation hence the "china" in their official names. for as long as taiwan are han chinese majority, "taiwanese" will always share some of the stigma with mainland chinese. you're feeling helpless because of good asian, bad asian syndrome.

[@tknam3278]

@@larrydavid5260 How funny! Taiwanese see China as a foreign country but China insists it's not.

[@현현이-x8h]

@@deadbydaylight3168 Using that one word “China” to suggest that they are automatically one nation isn’t logical. The United States of America and “the Americas” both have “America” in the name, but one is a country and the other term refers to a large region full of many different countries and cultures, and it doesn’t mean that they should become the same thing. Also, countries could call themselves whatever they want, but ultimately what matters is what the people want for themselves. If Taiwanese people now see themselves as unique and separate, who is China to argue with them? That makes China an aggressor and coercer. Also why does it matter if both countries are majority Han Chinese? The US is full of people with British ancestry and we were once a British territory, but I think everyone would be outraged if British MPs started calling on “reunification” with the US. The PRC has so much to feel proud of without becoming a warhawk and stirring up global conflict. American governments have already caused enough trouble with the Middle East for years, and Russia with its neighbors, we don’t need conflict in the Pacific again too when we would be better off with peace.

[@adammcd9424]

Two videos later and I'm hooked. Great channel I've just subscribed 😊

[@myself2noone]

It's worth noting that the calls for unification is more important then actually unifying. They won't ever admit it but Taiwan is more important as an enemy then they ever would be as a territory.

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Not true, Taiwan allows China unfettered access to the Pacific which is why Western neocons are fighting this hard over the island.

[@annarboriter]

"unification" well put

[@illuminaticomfirmed6948]

Thats dumb as fuck.

[@twood2032]

I have talked to many of my Chinese friends, when they talk about Taiwan it comes with strong emotion. Not emotion of hate, but rather sadness coming from the century of humiliation, they believe if the west seeks to stand in their way it is a continuation of that humiliation on the Chinese people. They will fight to the last man if they must in order to achieve total unification of China, they don't care if the war last for 100 of years or even 1000s, deep down their desire for unification is intense. The way I see it, the Chinese are not joking or FKing around in this matter. As out siders we might think there are other motives, but to the Chinese this is real, real as in life and death level of real.

[@annarboriter]

@@twood2032 You've described a diplomatic tantrum

[@jameswight6259]

Your stuff is just such super high quality. Thank you!

[@daviddelany7317]

My friend, it is a great honor to learn from you. Your perspectives shine lights in the darkness of controlled content. Thank you very sincerely for the thorough and accurate "brief introductions" to logic and analysis.

[@yuantingkung378]

Taiwanese here. This is a very good video, and thank you for explaining what's going on in Taiwan. Personally I loved how you said in 04:25 that Taiwanese people had never had a consensual relationship with the regime on this island. I'm a psychiatrist and some of the psychoanalyst in Taiwan even described this phenomenon as a castrated nation and sometimes explain why Taiwanese sometimes cared about security so much that those who are anti vaccine during COVID 19 will get vaccination when the numbers go out of control. Anyway, Taiwanese people had a long time of not being able to decide our own fate, and it somehow shifted when democracy arrived in 1996 when the 1st presidential election arrived. That is really a gold Taiwanese view I'll give you that. Also I'll add something, the 1996 KMT president to elect, Mr. Lee Tung Huei, was the first Taiwanese to ever get in such a high place over the whole KMT rule. By his strong intrigue, he managed to isolated and defeat every culturally chinese candidate and eventually led Taiwan to democracy. In Time Magazine, he was even dubbed Mr. Democracy as a recognition of his feat on transforming the regime on this island to a democracy, substantially changing the core of ROC to a at least semi-local regime. And he was later fired by the KMT in 2000s for being too Taiwanese.

[@HansLemurson]

Very interesting! It's easy to forget just how much mixed history and politics there can be in a country.

[@xunhaoyang3212]

But should you argue that Lee Tung Huei was more of a pro-Japanese politician than a pro-Taiwanese politician since he was raised under Japanese rule, served in the imperial army, recognised himself as a subject to the Tenno since birth and expressed affection for that country during his time in multiple occasions.

[@yuantingkung378]

@@xunhaoyang3212 You could like a country while being the president of a totally different country as long as that country had no interest in annexing you.

[@xunhaoyang3212]

@@yuantingkung378 Except for the fact that the country which he liked was the country who had once annexed Taiwan. 台湾民主国曾于1895年短暂存在。

[@xunhaoyang3212]

@@yuantingkung378 And he received education under colonial rule as a citizen of the Japanese Empire.

[@mindfulskills]

Ryan, I've been a new subscriber for a week or so. You are one of the very best teachers on KZbin. There's a guy who is claiming to "debunk" your analysis of post-modernism, but his delivery is hopelessly bogged down by unnecessary contentiousness, self-promotion, and erudite posturing. You, on the other hand, strike the perfect balance and tone. The clean way you deliver information and context without those flaws is wonderful. May we know something about your own background?

[@willywonka4340]

wow, oh wow, you really did your research Mr. Chapman! at 4:24 is the most important aspect of the Taiwan situation that no one else tend to understand when trying to explain the complexity of it all. Of all the KZbinrs I seen out there, you're the only one besides this other fellow I can't remember his name who even touched on the subject matter. Thank you for bringing this into the open because it seems that no one understands this better then the native Taiwanese themselves.

[@juno3254]

That was one of the greatest attempts at explaining the situation between Taiwan and China and good job at doing this! I can see that the video was very well researched and expresses both side's situation really elaborately! While I think that the video has done an amazing job at explaining Taiwan's perspective and I'm would also align myself as very much pro-Taiwan. One feedback I would give is that, this video might have misrepresented a bit of the origins of the Taiwanese people. (But again this is still a great video) A vast majority of Taiwanese are essentially settlers/colonists onto the island throughout the past few centuries. Han Chinese settlers from southeastern China(Fujian province) started in the 17th century after Dutch colonization. The video seems to have portrayed the Taiwanese people more like a group of natives who have always been on the island that are fighting against Chinese imperialism, but the reality is more complicated than that, where the majority demographic of Taiwan is also the result of the same kind of "Chinese imperialism." But I think this is the truth that many Taiwanese might be too upset to hear, because it's too anticolonialist and radical. It would the equivalent be me calling out all white Americans as settlers on the continent and a product of British imperialism. With regards to this, I do think that the Taiwanese independence movement is much more comparable to the American independence movement from Britain in the 18th century. Where British settlers on the continent have embraced a new kind of nationality(Americans) and wanted to be separate from British colonial rule and set up an independent liberal democratic republic away from the monarchical rule back home. But despite the establishment of the United States as a new nation, it doesn't really change the fact that the vast majority of Americans were British descendants and settlers rather than actual native Americans. So, Taiwan is also a result of Han Chinese settler colonialism, and I apologize for bringing in this critical theorist perspective into the picture, since in settler societies plenty of people have also argued that it is quite divisive to separate a nation into settlers vs. natives, but it's a valid point of view that more Taiwanese Aborigines would certainly hold towards their Han Taiwanese compatriots and China. I think a very similar thing like the U.S. is actually happening in Taiwan, coincidentally the Taiwanese also want to set up their own independent nation with a liberal democratic political system, but this doesn't change the fact that 95% of Taiwanese are Han descendants rather than indigenous peoples on the island. Although to be fair, the Han Taiwanese have had a more peaceful and less oppressive relationship with the Aboriginals, where plenty of Han Taiwanese in earlier centuries have already integrated and married with the indigenous population. And the DPP's administration have already been pursuing reconciliation and even more recognition of the original status of the Aboriginals. So my point is, IT IS important to recognize that the Taiwanese is indeed composed of 95% Han Chinese people, not because I support China's unification plan, but because it's a recognition of the status of Taiwanese Aboriginals that they are the natives of the land. So I think there should be an even more nuanced evaluation of Taiwan's perspective that distinguishes Han Taiwanese and Taiwanese Aboriginals. And I think if the Taiwanese independence movement succeeds in the future, the island would be facing a new set of challenges that exists in post-colonial Americas like U.S., Canada, and Australia, which is the need for reconciliation between its settler population and its native population.(In Taiwan: this would be the Han Taiwanese(being analogous to white Americans) vs. Taiwanese Aboriginals(being analogous to native Americans.) And for Taiwan, it is recommended that they keep pursuing their pluralistic policy of uniting and respecting their Aboriginal population, where it could become a post-colonial society more like New Zealand's, where its settler and Maori population would have a much more amicable relation with each other.

[@pepperdrac]

Hit that issue on the head, you did!

[@wilhelmzhou0414]

Very well addressed!

[@JK12345-z]

I don't think it is in parallel to the colonization of the US, since KMT's military resources was backed by the US, so there is another layer of power dominance of the Anglo-Saxons playing a strong hand manipulating affairs in Asia for their own interests in that regard

[@XW3126]

Thank you for clarifying the ethnic majority in Taiwan. I agree the situation is more comparable to the US independence from Britain.

[@Andy-P]

@@JK12345-z Again that is history. Taiwanese don't want to be ruled by Beijing. CCP lives in past Imperialist times like Putin

[@MattMorseTV]

Big fan of the videos, Ryan! Keep up the amazing work.

[@livlit]

Well balanced explanations backed by thorough research and historical data points. Nicely done!

[@DK-le3to]

This video has a gross omission that Han Chinese has established settlement on Taiwan since Song Dynasty, which was officially annexed by the Southern Song Dynasty and existed as an admisnistrative area during the Yuan Dynasty, which used it as one of the staging areas for Khublai's failed 2nd invasion of Japan in 1281. Given the depth of research in Ryan's other videos, I find it hard to believe that framing the Dutch as the first ruler of Taiwan was an unintential mistake and damages the neutrality image.

[@PeteZhaoCA]

man you are awesome! you understand this fucked up situation better than anybody I know, and I was born and raised in a place where EVERYBODY was constantly talking about this.

[@user-yc3fw6vq5n]

A very good job

[@taipeistp5660]

Much of your analysis is wrong. Actually democratization was forced by the United States. This is why the US advocates democracy in small countries all over the world, because it can prop up its own puppets. Since the democratization of Taiwan, every president has to report to the United States. He represents the interests of the United States, not Taiwan. Why are you afraid to talk about American influence in your video? Isn't it freedom of speech?

[@michann5586]

I really admire the effort put in this video. Cannot agree with a few things the way you put it as a Chinese. I found a comment from “One leaf”has laid out several points that need to be argued more. Hope RYAN will read them and tackle this topic further more, and make more updates on Taiwan issue.

[@tamnargun]

such an unexpectedly detailed and informative video. thank you so much for bringing social psychological aspects of the topic to your audience.

[@thedude7577]

really well done. great editing. almost cinematic!

[@HugotheBrainwasher]

China sees itself as a civilization state where the country is the geographical region with multiple forms of government. While Taiwan sees itself as a nation state where what the government has control over is the country.

[@madsappeal]

That is very true, and it's something many people in the West have a hard time understanding because we are taught about China simply as a communist ideological project. A Taiwan unified with China would most likely still have elections etc., however, movements toward independence would be illegalized, as we have seen in HK.

[@spacejunk2186]

@@madsappeal So Taiwan would just become like the Mainland. Amazing plan.

[@madsappeal]

@@spacejunk2186 The mainland doesn't have elections, so no. Hong Kong is also not like the mainland. There are no restrictions on the internet etc. in Hong Kong, like you have in the mainland.

[@ed.amame_z]

@@spacejunk2186 Sounds great! Better than having its tail held by the US

[@jl63023]

@@ed.amame_z How?

[@judithbarton9410]

Thank you for several videos I've watched since i found you. They are very good, easy, and informative. I truely thank you.

[@lewallaire8185]

My mother's uncle was a secretary to Chiang Kai Shek and I could never get him to talk much about his memories. (I was only 10 or 12 at the time. )This means a lot to me thank you so much

[@wheresmyeyebrow1608]

Damn that's so interesting It's a shame he never spoke about it

[@mm8693]

Very balanced and informative work! One thing added is about the Demographics of Taiwan quoted from Wikipedia. The population of Taiwan is approximately 23.30 million as of January 2023. Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu islands started as early as the 13th century, while settlement of the main island occurred from the 16th century during the Ming-Qing transition. Further immigration occurred when workers were imported from Fujian in the 17th century. According to governmental statistics, in the early 21st century, 95% to 97% of Taiwan's population are Han Chinese, while about 2.3% are Taiwanese of Austronesian ethnicity.[1][2] Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions. During the 20th century, the population of Taiwan rose more than sevenfold, from about 3 million in 1905 to more than 22 million by 2001. This high growth was caused by a combination of factors, such as very high fertility rates up to the 1960s, and low mortality rates.[citation needed] In addition, there was a surge in population as the Chinese Civil War ended and the Kuomintang (KMT) forces retreated, bringing an influx of 1.2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948-1949, representing less than 15% of the population at the time (who constitute approximately 10% of the population in 2004[3]).[4][2][5] Consequently, the population growth rate after that was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s, with an effective annual growth rate as high as 3.68% during 1951-1956. Fertility rates decreased gradually thereafter; in 1984 the rate reached the replacement level (2.1 children per woman, which is needed to replace the existing population). Fertility rates have continued to decline. In 2010, Taiwan had a population growth of less than 0.2% and a fertility rate of only 0.9, the lowest rate ever recorded in that country. The population of Taiwan peaked at 23.6 million in 2019 and has been continuously decreasing ever since. Most Taiwanese speak Mandarin.

[@bowlampar]

Actual facts on " Taiwanese Aboriginal and Tribal people" as real victim in Taiwan history is always hidden from public knowledge until now.

[@johnpayne6180]

Dear Ryan Chapman thankyou very much.

[@luciusd8564]

The version of Korea war we Chinese heard is that America tried to prevent china from reclaiming Taiwan and take control of east Asia through Korea. During the war between north and south war, America boomed and used biochemical weapons in the north provinces and Yalu River region of china. For the strategic safety and self-defense reasons, china send army to help the north Korea and gave up the plan of reclaiming Taiwan. In fact, the most important factor of taiwan issue is the us government. Considering the different attitudes of the US government in different times, Taiwan issue is more like the game between china and US. If it were successfully reclaimed, the america’s power over asia, especially japan and south korea could be diminished, for they would believe us troops in their countries can’t protect them well.

[@jchanmcse]

Yep, very true! US has been using the "divide and conquer" policy towards Taiwan and China to maximize the profits and benefits. They never want China to unite with Taiwan even they admitted the One China policy.

[@kennyy321]

Frankly, this KZbinr didn’t show the whole story of Taiwan Island. 1:20 Over 1800 years ago (era of three kingdoms ) Chinese Government has been governing this island. Then 1400 years later Dutchman found it and colonizing this island and the local people until a Chinese General Chenggong Zhen (Kuoxingga) recovered this territory. As a RoC citizen (Taiwan ), Very sad for the negative impacts of misinformation and fake news released by Anglo-Saxon medias

[@Shakespear1112]

You are literally spewing bullshit.

[@SpongeBobaFett]

another extremely well articulated video. if only we all had the patience, eloquence, and intelligence to properly learn, digest, and explain information like you

[@user-yc3fw6vq5n]

Yes!

[@devoscape589]

Your profile with this comment form a beautiful dissonance

[@se-wb9hv]

Is the author so stupid? Why not mention UN Resolution 2758? The resolution made it clear that the Communist Party of China is the sole legal government of China, replacing all rights and interests of the Kuomintang in the United Nations. At the same time, the Kuomintang was expelled from the United Nations and replaced by the Communist Party. Including the territory of Taiwan is the territory of the Communist Party of China, why the Communist Party failed to occupy Taiwan? Because of US intervention. At that time, the United States was very powerful, and China could not defeat the United States, so it had to compromise.。

[@danzwku]

As a Chinese-Taiwanese, this has been one of the most I've been impressed by a video trying to explain our situation, as frequently people get it wrong. To clarify though, 8:12 Status Quo means the Republic of China continues to govern Taiwan and it's islands while maintaining official diplomatic relations with the 14 countries we still have it with, 8:19 I stress the importance of journalists and analysists to stop calling this option "Independence" As we are already a fully independent and sovereign nation. Our government, the Republic of China, the original and what is in my opinion the more legitimate government of China was a founding member of the United Nations, and we remained in the United Nations up until 1971, while the communists side were not. I would obviously not argue to expel the PRC ("People's" Republic of China) from the United Nations, but to simply formalize and enforce a peaceful Two State Solution, as we already have a Two State Situation. This second option is essentially just to change what Taiwan calls itself, seceding not from the PRC, unfortunately commonly known as China, as they have NEVER governed Taiwan in any century, decade, year, month, week, day, hour, minute, or second in history, but to secede from their own government, the Republic of China, effectively ending it, and creating a new Republic of Taiwan. The idea is, "Fine, we don't care about this conflict of "who is the real China", PRC, fine, if you want to be the one and only China, fine, we'll just be Taiwan." You could argue this is the more peaceful solution, (although with the 1st option there wouldn't have to be any conflict either), but this is an option the PRC won't even accept. The last option of unification, (and mind you it's NOT "reunification" as the PRC has never held Taiwan before) is held by a tiny minority of people, often Han Chinese ethno-supremacists or nationalists, Chinese chauvinists, or people who have business interests in mainland China. The US position on this issue is that they are against both sides unilaterally changing the status quo. This position is actually too pro China, or soft on China, however you'd like to phrase it, and unfair to Taiwan, if you just look at the "unilateral change" both sides would like to make. The unilateral change the PRC would like to take is to militarily invade and/or annex Taiwan, without the consent of the Taiwanese. But the unilateral change a fraction of the Taiwanese would like to take is to simply change what it calls itself, and formally secede from the idea of any China, whether it's the ROC, or the PRC, (although it doesn't have to secede from the PRC because again, the PRC has never held Taiwan before and is a foreign invader.) Again you could argue this is a peaceful desire to move forward, saying "we don't want to fight over who is the real China, you want to be the one and only China, you go ahead, we'll just be Taiwan." (b)(3) of the Taiwan Relations Act reads, "the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;" "the United States shall provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character and shall maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan." Despite knowing that "the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;" it is still planning to annex Taiwan, whether through violence or coercion. 15:25 It's important to note that the Communist Party of China were responsible for an incomparable amount of deaths of Chinese people than all of the foreign imperialist colonial powers put together during the "Century of Humiliation", so much so that I include the Communist Party of China in the century of humiliation, or something worse than it. 16:52 It's also important to note how the CPC won the Chinese Civil War. When the Japanese invaded China in the 2nd Sino Japanese War, it was the ROC, Republic of China, and the KMT that did the overwhelming majority of defending China, fighting off the invasion. When the KMT fought off the Japanese in one battle and started to engage them in the next, the communists would come out of the shadows from which they hid during the war and stole all equipment, weapons, and ammunition that they could from behind them. While the KMT and ROC, the Republic of China, the legitimate government of China were defending China, the communists were hiding and letting their rivals take the overwhelming majority of the sacrifice and casualties of the fighting, while they campaigned to recruit and conscript peasants into their cause. By the end of the war, the KMT/ROC were bankrupt, and lost a huge amount of their men, which allowed the communists to take over and kick the KMT/ROC out of China and onto Taiwan, effectively seceding from the ROC and declaring their independence, forming their PRC. It's important to note that they are the secessionists and separatists here because they seceded from the legitimate government of China, while the Taiwanese never have to secede and separate from them because the PRC had never held jurisdiction over Taiwan. When the Japanese asked Mao and communists about reparations from the war, Mao explained, "Reparations! We haven't even thanked you yet. If it wasn't for what you did, (killing and raping millions of Chinese people, weakening the ROC,) we wouldn't have been able to take over!" The CPC went on to be the #1 regime in the world responsible for the highest number of deaths of Chinese people, and the disrespect and destruction of Chinese culture. The death tolls range from 80 to 100 million deaths. They wanted to burn all existing Chinese culture to the ground, and start from scratch, so that the only culture that was permitted to exist was their version of communism. They almost destroyed Chinese calligraphy/characters/writing altogether, and wanted to make up a phonetic system. It took a foreign Caucasian dictator, Stalin, to stop the supposed "Chinese" leader, Mao, from completely destroying one of the longest surviving pieces of Chinese culture. That is why millions of Chinese people around the world, although scattered and not organized do not support the Communist Party of China. It's also important to note that in the beginning of the CPC, and even Mao himself, supported Taiwan independence from China: "By the late 1920s, the young CCP was of course primarily engaged in its struggle for survival against Chiang’s Nationalists. But they did develop a very distinct position vis-à-vis Taiwan, which was totally the opposite of the party’s present position. As is described in detail in the seminal study by Frank S. T. Hsiao, and Lawrence R. Sullivan. “The Chinese Communist Party and the Status of Taiwan, 1928-1943,” between 1928 and 1943 Communist Party leaders consistently recognized the Taiwanese as a distinct “nation” or “nationality” (minzu). The CCP also acknowledged the “national liberation movement” on Japan-occupied Taiwan as the struggle of a “weak and small nationality” that was separate from the Chinese revolution and potentially sovereign. This was expressed most clearly by Chairman Mao Zedong in his 1937 interview with American journalist Edgar Snow, who quoted Mao as saying: “…we will extend them (the Koreans) our enthusiastic help in their struggle for independence. The same thing applies for Taiwan.” This position was reiterated in subsequent years by CCP luminaries like Zhou Enlai." I've made a couple videos on this, feel free to check it out.

[@daisfamily]

wow. here comes a true "history maker". aint you feeling great, while you are making those blunt history lies? 真的不要脸了吗？

[@danzwku]

@@daisfamily it is only people who read, write, and type in fake Chinese like you do who lies about history.

[@tonywyli]

说什么也没有用，在我们的眼中，台湾只是一个割据政权！卧榻之旁岂容他人鼾睡！加上你们勾结美国伤害中华民族，是货真价实的汉奸割据政权。

[@danzwku]

你講的沒錯 跟中共講任何道理和真相證據都沒用 因為中共是最傷害中華民族的政權 如果中共沒有那麼樂意逼中國人殺中國人 漢人殺漢人 台灣也就沒有原因跟任何國家買武器了

[@jdenmark1287]

As a side note: The Polynesians came from sea tribes of Taiwan. In reference to this conflict, China has made their intentions clear, they will use any means necessary to force themselves upon Taiwan. As such, Taiwan and any allies have every right to preemptively strike the CCP with any means available.

[@instachocolate]

Great work on history research, I juast want to add that above all the history, the strategic position as the center piece of the first island chain, and the dominant semi-conductor industry are probably the thing that really interest any superpower to get involved in the issue.

[@ex0duzz]

Chips are a distraction, USA and west knows that one missile or bomb to tsmc factory and it's game over, nothing for USA to "protect" anymore. China can just use one of their thousands of spies in Taiwan to do terrorist attack on the factory. The real reason is first island chain containment, and always using Taiwan card for political leverage against china in every other us china negotiations. If china had access to Taiwan, it would have a deep water port and USA can no longer contain or track Chinese submarines, china would have free access to the whole pacific and the world. Taiwans deep water ports have waters thousands of meters deep, while China's coast has like 50-100 meter deep only, which allows USA to use Taiwan, Japan, Philippines and South Korea to contain and track all Chinese subs coming and leaving the first island chain. Compared to the first island chain containment and tracking of Chinese navy including nuke subs, chips are nothing. It's all about national security and USAs containment of China. If China takes Taiwan, USA basically loses all its control of China and China would basically be on equal footing with USA, since china would now have the ability to sneak attack USA west coast at will from the seas.

[@instachocolate]

@@ex0duzz Very well said. Security for sure plays at least 80% of a role here, because it's life or death problem. Tsmc, however, is not something China is interested in bombing (actually US might even like the idea of tsmc factories getting blown up since the Arizona factory would then become the best they are left with). China wants it to make her profit instead. Especially considering China's bid for high-tech industry dominance, tsmc could be an important piece of puzzle to that spply chain. Not saying it is even close to the significance of navy ships, it's just that it creates a delicate balance there.

[@ex0duzz]

@@instachocolate yeh course china is not interested in war except as a last resort. China also uses tsmc chips after all and china is taiwans biggest trade partner, and taiwanese are also Chinese in Chinese people's eyes. Only usa and west benefit from Chinese killing Chinese. War, terrorism and killing is a failure of diplomacy and higher level strategy to Chinese. That's more usa style and thus why they project their insecurities on china. They don't understand china enough

[@evergreenhills]

China claim to Taiwan long before the tsmc established.

[@arsenii_yavorskyi]

wow. I thought I had Taiwan all figured out, but there was a lot more to it. thank you for this enlightening video.

[@0532phillipjoy]

Really helpful, thank you. It took me a while to find a decent explanation of a question I discovered I was ignorant of.

[@4H46PvD]

As a Taiwanese, this is the most unbiased and adequately informative video on Taiwan-China issue I’ve ever seen!

[@yanislee1085]

Isn't it fascinating that the fate of Ming Dynasty was the same as the ROC? LIke both of them fled to the island and reminisce of reclaiming the mainland.

[@haodeplorable266]

Of course, yes

[@userunknown8454]

I didn't get the notification for this video. Great work, thank you.

[@frankmerriwell8339]

One-China Policy should never be left out when talking about today’s Taiwan situation. Don’t know if it’s on purpose or not. Anyway here’s some facts about it: The ‘One China Policy’ is the foundation of today’s Sino-US relation. By acknowledging there’s only one China and which Taiwan is a part of, the US started official diplomatic relation with PRC China in 1970s. The policy also played a role in China rejoining the UN. As PRC replaced ROC as an official member of UNSC. One-China Policy was acknowledged by all UN members then. Only that some countries may differ on which government is the official representative of China. Given the facts above, it becomes clear that today’s conflict around Taiwan is more of the conflict between China and US rather than between mainland and Taiwan. Because as ‘One-China Policy’ is still in effect, Taiwan’s issue is nothing but an internal affair of China. That is, an issue among the people on both sides of the sea. An issue which the US has no business in. However, as Taiwan is too valuable an asset in controlling the first island chain thus containing China, the US has been seeking ways to treat Taiwan as a country without actually tearing up the agreement. In other word, ‘strategic ambiguity’ is actually an effort to hollow out the One-China Policy. PRC China reaffirms One-China principle as a counter measure, so the conflict begins. Actually, to think Taiwanese people alone have the right to decide whether Taiwan will be a country or not is nothing short of neglecting the One-China policy. And this is the exact narrative the US has been preaching across the world. I have seen similar narrative in this video, which I don’t think is a comprehensive enough way to approach this issue. Still, this video is one of the more all-sided presentations of this matter. Todays MSM narratives on Taiwan are not only biased, but also dangerous. Misjudgment will only aggravate the conflict, and after all the events in 2022 this is the last thing the world needs now.

[@ygthemoth9425]

Yea fuck the one China policy, nobody cares lmao.

[@Triggered-RC]

"The ‘One China Policy’ is the foundation of today’s Sino-US relation. By acknowledging there’s only one China and which Taiwan is a part of, the US started official diplomatic relation with PRC China in 1970s." Incorrect. The US, nor any other Western power, has ever recognized Taiwan as a part of China. What you are quoting is China's "one China policy", not the one China policy agreed to by countries like the US. The United States' One-China policy was first stated in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972: "the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China." It doesn't say Taiwan is a part of China, it simply says that the US that the US knows that China thinks this.

[@kjjkmh684]

@@Triggered-RC What's the meaning of acknowledge？ Does it mean that I know or I recognized? LMAO

[@mix3ry199]

This video needs more views. To summarise: The Chinese empire started out small and had it's heyday in the Qing Dynasty. Chinese doctrine said that "it is the law of nature to be inferior to any other "race"". Then China lost a lot of territory for whatever reason (other places also lost territory to China in the first place). Now China calls this "the age of humiliation" because they lost things. Then CCP China says they want to restore their former "Qing glory" days, while other parts of the world have already moved on and don't want to be part of it anymore. But the doctrine still says that parts A, B and C were once part of China and therefore it's the law of nature to reclaim them? Didn´t turned out so well for other places who tried this. As for the Taiwan "issue", many people left China and moved to Taiwan hundreds of years ago, Taiwan (as said in the video) was a minor and unimportant place for the ruling dynasty, be it Qing, Ming etc. to begin with and got much attention. Also another question, those who say "you are Chinese not Taiwanese", how long do you have to live somewhere else to be considered "not Chinese" anymore? I'm not asking about someone who was born in China and then moved abroad, I'm talking about generations. I have family living in both China and Taiwan, moving from TW to CN and the other way around, also not talking about 1-2 years, more like 30-40 years. More and more countries these days are defined by their mindset and ethics rather than their ethnicity, at least the developed ones.

[@dontask4990]

You are right, Taiwanese is not a race

[@edwinlee2280]

Whilst I don't agree with the underlying message of this video, I will say the video covers this whole China/Taiwan issue very thoroughly, logically and convincingly. Well done 👏

[@emeraldyt2025]

Thank you for offering a neutral educational piece that's rare in the western media sphere. Keep up the great work!

[@answerwu2011]

correction: ACCORDING TO CONSTITUTION OF Republic of China, Taiwan is a province under ROC, and ROC still control both Taiwan province and Fujian Province.

[@mathieufaltys]

You misspoke when you said that China's commitment to Korea began the Korean War. I feel you know this because a few sentences later you recognized that the Chinese entered the war to save the collapsing Korean army. I only mention this to push back on the official US government propaganda that North Korea was simply a pawn of Russia and China. The reality is that the northern government was popular at the time in both the north and south. Meanwhile, the southern government was a despotic regime with very little support from the people and almost completely dependent on the United States. It was the US who provoked and continually escalated the war to keep the Korean people from choosing their own path.

[@XiaosChannel]

6:33 whoa whoa whoa as a language youtuber gotta stop you for a second there. what you're calling taiwanese is Hokkien or Southern Min, i.e. literarilly "southern Fujian" dialect, as that was where Han Taiwanese are mostly from, which you seemed failed to mention. Not sure if you're saving it for the later half, but i think calling a language/dialect from and still spoken in mainland "taiwanese" is gonna be quite confusing.

[@seanwoo9140]

You miss the point that the Taiwanese were initially formed by native Taiwanese(which you mentioned in the video) and immigrants from mainland China (mostly Fujian province). the language Taiwanese is actually Min Nan dialects from FUjian mainland China. So the tie between mainland China and Taiwan is like the UK and the US in the 1700s.

[@tsuikr]

The geopolitical underlying force was trivialized! Both the US and Japan subtlety fueled the independence sentiment when China mainland was struggling to establish itself. Legally, there is no question that Taiwan is part of China. If the Taiwanese want to be independent, legitimately, it is an internal problem for China, and outside countries should not interfere.

[@luism007]

The island of Taiwan is a province of China, just as Hawaii is a state of the United States. But China does not seek separation from Hawaii or sell it weapons. The same happens with the island of Puerto Rico, which was invaded by USA about a century ago. What would happen if China sold arms to Puerto Rico?

[@paulles8114]

You are so spot on about the old history of China, that's a burden as well since you can always find all kind of historical precedents to judge the action taken by the governments on each side of the strait : looking back in history, China always prosper during unification & suffer during separation, and even the concequence of a military movement would be considered as tolerable as when you put that in the thousands year of history, that's nothing. If Xi wants to be remembered as a great leader in history, as he claimed to be, there is no other better achievement currently than taking back Taiwan. So in a way that's inevitable & people needs to prepare for that.

[@stevenbaksh5545]

The strange thing is looking at history China does terribly in foreign wars

[@jamesshi6151]

you didnot mention that un decision that prc replace all roc position and power since 1971.

[@kirbyone]

This was very well said, thank you. However I think it would have been great to have a short third part which covers the way the international community views Taiwan. It's worth pointing out that between the two viewpoints, PRC and Taiwan, the overwhelming majority of nations in the UN (with a literal handful of exceptions) do not recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and so have de facto decided that the PRC point of view is the legitimate one. To the detriment of the Taiwanese, unfortunately, but it does seem to be quite relevant

[@se-wb9hv]

Is the author so stupid? Why not mention UN Resolution 2758? The resolution made it clear that the Communist Party of China is the sole legal government of China, replacing all rights and interests of the Kuomintang in the United Nations. At the same time, the Kuomintang was expelled from the United Nations and replaced by the Communist Party. Including the territory of Taiwan is the territory of the Communist Party of China, why the Communist Party failed to occupy Taiwan? Because of US intervention. At that time, the United States was very powerful, and China could not defeat the United States, so it had to compromise.

[@Bk6346]

Taiwan hasn’t even declared independence. Remember the Chinese Civil War and the ROC claimed to be the legitimate government of mainland China.

[@ivanj.conway9919]

So the Taiwanese should never have a voice in what THEY WANT THEMSELVES, then?! I'm a firm, supporter of the United Nations but decisions like this utterly, sicken me. The day the Taiwanese themselves, claim independence is the day the international community should RECOGNIZE, that independence. Not a day before and not a day after. To hell with whatever the Chinese government thinks the boarders of China once was, what matters is what they are today, and what the people themselves, in these areas want, themselves. How is it this government sits itself above absolutely, everything else like this. They will never be considered a proper, civilized, nation as long as it keeps to these types of ideas and attitudes. The same goes for Russia as well, in regard to their invasion of the Ukraine.

[@kirbyone]

@@ivanj.conway9919 first of all: yes the Taiwanese voice should be the predominant one that defines their identity, and I never said otherwise. My point is in regards to what information this video provided. He presented multiple points of view, but in my opinion left one point of view out Second of all I use UN nations as a catchall to describe individual nations more than to refer to the UN itself. Yes, the UN could make some resolution on it and haven't really, but that matters less than, for example, the United States individually itself not actually recognizing Taiwanese independence. Nor the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Australia, South Korea, South Africa, etc. you get the point. Countries that are UN members individually have not recognized Taiwan, which means that for all the rhetoric of wanting to defend it, whatever that means, they are still tacitly agreeing with China's opinion on the matter by choosing not to recognize Taiwan. So get pissed about it with all the governments in the world, except like the Vatican

[@cadillacxts5955]

@@ivanj.conway9919 Do you support the national split after the American Civil War

[@kaerakh4267]

Another great video Ryan, I appreciate what you do.

[@michellec1866]

The problem is not whether Taiwan should be independent but China should be a democracy.

[@benjiusofficial]

Bingo. If China's leadership meaningfully reflected its people, it wouldn't be humilating itself still.

[@ezio1598]

Thank you for all the work you put into your videos Ryan, always insightful and educational

[@robert-iv7ly]

As someone who has looked into this multiple times this is a good summary of the situation.

[@elielee7364]

This video implies Taiwan Island as a 'separate' nation which is completely wrong since no nation on Earth recognizes it as such

[@robert-iv7ly]

@@elielee7364 hah Chinese, right? Look, is self-governing and does things independently from the people's republic of China, if The Republic of China (Taiwan) acts independently then it is. And wrong, is recognized by a few countries. Is basically considered a rogue region by the CCP. So next time just say they are revels or something, but they still are basically separated.

[@angeliquewu8318]

@@robert-iv7ly That's actually false. Taiwan's current legal status is that of a part of China. The legality of everything, based partly off of international recognition, is what separates a country from a rogue region. Officially, the vast majority of countries support the PRC as the official ruler of all of China, which matters because whatever authority there is on Taiwan has not declared independence yet. There is no recognition for Taiwan only; the few minor countries that do support "Taiwan" as a country are actually supporting the ROC as the legitimate government of all of China, because the PRC, the stronger party that actually has control over the majority of the mainland, views it as a civil war (which is what the actual status of everything is in) and will break off ties with any country that recognizes the ROC. They will only officially, legally become independent if they change their constitution (which has as an integral part of it the claims that the current government is an inalienable part of China along with land claims that pretty much encompass the Qing dynasty's lands) and announce independence, yet no authority on Taiwan seems to be willing to do that for the time being. So you're wrong. "Taiwan" is not independent, nor is the ROC, (by their own admission!) until they make those two changes. It doesn't matter if a separate government rules them, it doesn't matter if they have their own currency, none of the things you listed as supposed "evidence" matters. Officially, legally, on the international stage, they are not an independent country. Of course, they can try to do those two things, but then the civil war would officially resume and the mainland would have the right to actually move in and take it back.

[@xiaogezhang126]

@@robert-iv7ly as a Chinese I have to say that this video really makes some senses and make me clear about a lot of things. But I still want to point out that although there are native people who live on that island long time ago, Taiwanese population is still majorly originated from mainland China. I do sense that the people in Taiwan have this impression of being suppressed by colonists but just as stated in this video. Main land Chinese people have, if not more, equal right to achieve what we believe in. If you say that you respect the will of the people who live on the island, then how about 1.5 billion people's will across the channel? At least to my knowledge, most Chinese people including me have this notion of, sort of like, "make China great again" and most of them are looking forward to the unification. And towards the points of Chinese government showing off muscles, I do want to admit that it is true. However I want to add some facts of the disgusting politicians who play an horrible role in Taiwan and America such as Nancy Pelosi. She, as an in-office government official, visiting Taiwan, which is a country not officially recognized by US government is an unnecessary and purely evil action. Also this is the direct cause of this recent military drill. Here is my own opinion on this matter. I think my best hope on this matter is that as the economic power and personal freedom of Mainland Chinnese people grows, the Taiwanese people would see that maybe reunification peacefully wouldn't be so bad. (in fact you can check Hongkong as an example, life in Hongkong, legislatively, is still very different from life in mainland). Unfortunately, populists in both Taiwan and America consistently poke CCP, even they know very well this is the bottom lines of my country, so I think the peaceful resolve on this matter is more and more unlikely...

[@samcjsattt]

@@xiaogezhang126 Why would anyone on earth except Taiwanese have a say about Taiwan? Mainland 1.5 billion people don’t have a say nor the US and the rest of the world. We live in the 21st century bro. Only Taiwanese should decide who they belong to.

[@thesadboxman]

Your videos are so good. More balanced than anything else I've seen

[@AngelaRodhas]

Let me tell you that I love your videos. I came across with your channel just few days ago and I'm already addicted. I want to tell you that you are missing a huge point in your analysis and that is the strategic location of the island which the West is protecting not because they really care about human rights but because they can have direct access to China's borders. Something like Ukraine-Russia. I believe the US only cares about that specific point maybe to have another proxy war.

[@Herewatching]

The way you skipped the history before 1600 which will show much more of the close relationship between mainland and Taiwan is very interesting

[@dwilliams9801]

Great work.. I subscribed because I realize your sincere effort at creating meaningful content

[@lukeecle117]

Wow, neutral, well balanced , fact-based documentary, nice job, Ryan

[@andywu5879]

it was so difficult to find someone from the west who understands and explained the situation so well not in any kind of prejudiced viewpoint. Subscribed.

[@MsKateC2K]

Still has a lot of mistakes tbh

[@Whrichd]

disclaimer: i’m from China I think it’s misleading to frame it as if Taiwan has its own distinct culture right off the bat. Aboriginals make up a tiny percentage of the current population and 96% are immigrants from China. We speak the same language, learn the same history, consume mostly the same entertainment formats. You say the position in the video is from the official Taiwanese narrative, I’ll take your word for it since I’m not familiar but that is misleading and taking advantage of the minority natives for their own narrative. I think the conflict is much more political than cultural, and I don’t think it would be so bad for a unified China, IF it’s democratized.