Everybody knows about the backstory, there was a civil war, KMT fled to Taiwan creating two Chinas sort of, maybe, neither recognises the other, whole thing. ROC (Taiwan) ended up transitioning from military rule to a multi-party democracy, while the PRC (mainland China) didn’t do that (they did reform economically, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and all that, but still a one-party state, not a multi-party democracy). The status quo right now is that Taiwan is in the grey area of statehood where they function pretty much independently but aren’t properly recognised, and both sides of the strait are feeling pretty tense right now.
Taiwan’s stance on the issue is that they would like to remain politically and economically independent of mainland China, retaining their multi-party democracy, political connections to its allies, economic trade connections, etc. Also, a majority of the people in Taiwan do not support reunification with China.
China’s stance on the issue is that Taiwan should be reunified with the mainland at all costs, ideally peacefully, but war is not ruled out. They argue that Taiwan was unfairly separated from the mainland by imperial powers in their “century of humiliation”. Strategically, taking Taiwan would be beneficial to China as they would have better control of the sea.
Is it even possible for both sides to agree to a peaceful solution? Personally, I can only see two ways this could go about that has the consent of both parties. One, a reformist leader takes power in the mainland and gives up on Taiwan, and the two exist as separate independent nations. Or two, the mainland gets a super-reformist leader that transitions the mainland to a multi-party democracy, and maybe then reunification could be on the table, with Taiwan keeping an autonomous status given the large cultural difference (similar to Hong Kong or Macau’s current status). Both options are, unfortunately, very unlikely to occur in the near future.
A third option (?) would be a pseudo-unification, where Taiwan becomes a recognised country, but there can be free movement of people between the mainland and Taiwan, free trade, that sort of stuff (sort of like the EU? Maybe?). Not sure if the PRC would accept that.
What are your thoughts on a peaceful solution to the crisis that both sides could agree on?
edit: Damn there are crazies in both ends of the arguments. I really don’t think giving Taiwan nukes would help solve the problem.
I think the current best solution, looking at the more reasonable and realistic comments, seems to be to maintain the status quo, at least until both sides of the strait are able to come into some sort of agreement (which seems to be worlds away right now given their current very opposing stances on the issue)
你对一孩政策有什么看法？
你知不知道，我就是那个时代出生的。
我是我妈的第二胎。
我妈想要我，但是党想灭我。差点被他们灭了。
应为我犯了”做第二胎”的罪
我问你：党凭什么有权灭我？
为什么政府那么恨我？
连出生后都几乎当我不存在。
我曾经是黑户
后来要罚几万块才能拿身份。好不容易用了几年的时间我父母才能凑到那么多钱。
几乎像 blackmail 一样。
别怪我恨党恨政府，是首先党和政府把我当敌人。
你支持党这个政策吗？你真的那么恨我吗？
你觉得我存在这个世界上是个罪吗？
我真是觉得投胎投错了地方了。
I was born in the 90s. I lived through that period too. My family was rural, and because of minority status we experienced the system differently so while I understand what that era felt like on the ground, I can only sympathize with what you went through.
I don’t support the one-child policy. A lot of people on the mainland don’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand where it came from. It was created under extreme poverty, food insecurity, and rapid industrialization. The intention was to slow population pressure, but the execution was harsh and often cruel. What you experienced was real, terrible, and not something I would ever support or want repeated. I’m not denying or justifying those practices.
But what you’re doing now is turning personal trauma into a judgment on an entire country and decades of development and progress.
When I was a kid, my parents’ home village and surrounding villages still had no proper roads, no clinics, no stable electricity. That was normal. Look at what followed: hundreds of millions lifted out of extreme poverty, infrastructure reaching remote areas, near-universal schooling, massive housing programs, healthcare expanded nationwide. Corrupt officials actually getting investigated and punished, including high-level ones. The one-child policy ended over a decade ago but the positive policies remain, and so do their effects.
You can hate that policy. I think it was deeply flawed too. But saying “nothing changed” or that the whole project is meaningless is just ignoring reality.
You ask why the state had power over reproduction that’s a great question, why do states have that control, but you talk like this only happens in China. Western governments regulate reproduction too: abortion bans, forced sterilizations in prisons and detention centers, child removal through foster systems, welfare penalties for having kids. States everywhere control bodies in different ways. So don’t pretend this is some uniquely mainland evil.
And no I obviously don’t hate you I know nothing about you. I don’t think your existence is a crime. You’re turning my defense of China’s overall development into a personal attack on you.
Your experience deserves sympathy. I genuinely mean that. But a country isn’t built around any one person’s trauma. You judge a government by whether it feeds people, educates them, houses them, provides healthcare, and raises living standards, not only by individual suffering, even when that suffering is real and tragic.
You can resent the policy. That’s fair. But don’t erase the entire historical process because of it.
And since we’re talking about flawed policies, I also think the hukou system is deeply broken. It affected me personally too. Not to the extent the one-child policy affected you, obviously, but enough that I know what it feels like to be limited by bureaucracy and birthplace. I don’t pretend these systems were harmless or well-designed. But you also can’t let real mistakes erase the whole picture. Depending on how cynical I’m feeling, my assessment of the government ranges from 60/40 to 90/10 in its favor but even at my most critical, it’s still obvious they’ve done far more good than harm overall.
You’re focusing on one painful chapter and pretending the rest didn’t happen. That’s not honest, especially to the hundreds of millions who no longer live in desperation.