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> - Taiwan would willing reunify with the mainland. There would be no looming war From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiw

> - Taiwan would willing reunify with the mainland. There would be no looming war From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. If mainland democratization happened early enough, maybe, but I don't see what a small country in Taiwan's position has to gain by merger with a larger one. > - Silicon Valley would have been long overtaken by Shenzhen To the extent the markets were fairly free before Xi's heavy handedness, why didn't this happen yet anyway? Silicon Valley is kind of unique even in the USA. I've read this is because of particularly startup-friendly California laws. Is there reason to believe these startup-friendly laws would have been duplicated in Shenzhen? Or some other reason to believe Shenzhen would have turned into a Silicon Valley rival otherwise? > - the Chinese domestic market would have been opened up to the world long ago Anti-import policies are adopted by democratic countries too.

chaostheory 4y ago
> From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. That was cemented once Xi started being reckless, leading to the end of the one China two systems policy. Prior to Xi, it wasn’t as black and white. > To the extent the markets were fairly free before Xi's heavy handedness, why didn't this happen yet anyway? You just answered your own question. Under authoritarianism, the government can abruptly shutdown the party at any moment for any arbitrary reason. There’s no rule of law that comes with a democracy. Also innovation needs freedom of speech. There is a cost to society and business when you’re constantly having to self censor yourself > Anti-import policies are adopted by democratic countries too. Sure, the EU has a lot of protectionist laws, but they don’t even come close to CCP’s draconian version

chaostheory 4y ago

> From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. That was cemented once Xi started being reckless, leading to the end of the one China two systems policy. Prior to Xi, it wasn’t as black and white. > To the extent the markets were fairly free before Xi's heavy handedness, why didn't this happen yet anyway? You just answered your own question. Under authoritarianism, the government can abruptly shutdown the party at any moment for any arbitrary reason. There’s no rule of law that comes with a democracy. Also innovation needs freedom of speech. There is a cost to society and business when you’re constantly having to self censor yourself > Anti-import policies are adopted by democratic countries too. Sure, the EU has a lot of protectionist laws, but they don’t even come close to CCP’s draconian version