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I'm not a fan of China by any means, but whenever the topic of the Chinese stance towards Taiwan comes up, I feel that people in the west get a feeling as thoug

I'm not a fan of China by any means, but whenever the topic of the Chinese stance towards Taiwan comes up, I feel that people in the west get a feeling as though it's an unparalleled and egregious denial of reality and that they're crazy for sticking their fingers in their ears. But we do basically the same thing with Palestine. It's recognized by basically everyone (including a majority of UN members) except the US and Israel. What bugs me most is that neither Google or Apple maps label Palestine as a region. I can understand denial of a region in the context of the craziness that is geopolitical grandstanding, but I cannot understand how the average everyday employees at these companies can justify going along with it and purposefully encoding and forwarding on this ridiculous notion in their map offerings. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/10/google-maps-accused-remove-palestine https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/10/google-ma...

craftyguy 8y ago
It's not unparalleled. We literally did the same thing in the months leading up to WW2[1] and we're doing it today with Crimea/Russia. It's appeasement. It's easier to do because it just delays the inevitable conflict, though history has shown multiple times that it always ends in bloody conflict.. In the case with China, we're plugging our ears and looking the other way while they prepare to stomp all over the South China sea and Taiwan. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement#Conduct_of_appeasement,_1937%E2%80%9339 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement#Conduct_of_appease...
sometimesijust 8y ago
I also think people have a right to self governance but... Palestine is a searchable entity on Google maps. It does not label the state but the territories West Bank and Gaza are labelled in the typical contested fashion. The blurb fairly mentions the Palestinianess and the contestedness of both territories. By comparison Taiwan is also a searchable entity and is labelled but its blurb is very carefully hand written to not mention governance. There is no way that a ignorant person could disabuse themselves with the provided information and is likely to be interpreted as confirming your chosen side. To put it simply it is a weasel blurb. The label however is a country level label. Being generous you could say it is being handled similar to how the EU but also given that the territories are seperated by Israel it's not obvious where you might put the State of Palestine label. The difference is the access to associated information for those curious enough to look. Even outside of China it is evident that effective pressure for informational cleansing is being brought to bare on Taiwan's statehood that exceeds that of Palestine's. Which is the topic discussed in the article. The fact that neithers situation is good is just whataboutism. In an ideal world China would stick their nose in and force Palestinian recognition and the US/Israel would do the same for Taiwan. Or maybe recognising people's right to self-governance could be the next social justice movement.

craftyguy 8y ago

It's not unparalleled. We literally did the same thing in the months leading up to WW2[1] and we're doing it today with Crimea/Russia. It's appeasement. It's easier to do because it just delays the inevitable conflict, though history has shown multiple times that it always ends in bloody conflict.. In the case with China, we're plugging our ears and looking the other way while they prepare to stomp all over the South China sea and Taiwan. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement#Conduct_of_appeasement,_1937%E2%80%9339 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement#Conduct_of_appease...

sometimesijust 8y ago

I also think people have a right to self governance but... Palestine is a searchable entity on Google maps. It does not label the state but the territories West Bank and Gaza are labelled in the typical contested fashion. The blurb fairly mentions the Palestinianess and the contestedness of both territories. By comparison Taiwan is also a searchable entity and is labelled but its blurb is very carefully hand written to not mention governance. There is no way that a ignorant person could disabuse themselves with the provided information and is likely to be interpreted as confirming your chosen side. To put it simply it is a weasel blurb. The label however is a country level label. Being generous you could say it is being handled similar to how the EU but also given that the territories are seperated by Israel it's not obvious where you might put the State of Palestine label. The difference is the access to associated information for those curious enough to look. Even outside of China it is evident that effective pressure for informational cleansing is being brought to bare on Taiwan's statehood that exceeds that of Palestine's. Which is the topic discussed in the article. The fact that neithers situation is good is just whataboutism. In an ideal world China would stick their nose in and force Palestinian recognition and the US/Israel would do the same for Taiwan. Or maybe recognising people's right to self-governance could be the next social justice movement.