Honestly by the end of this their struggle session might give us a run for our money. Currently at 8 upvotes and 110 comments. OP is also a new account who has only posted this and in r/Taiwan. Grab your popcorn folks, this one’s juicy.
EDIT: The cowards locked it.
Do I need to know someone from, say, Indonesia, or Iraq, be worried about their sovereignty?
The question is who is taking them over. Iraq was invaded by the US and Co. After decades of meddling. I don't support military intervention in the middle East because it has only ever made things worse for the people that live there, and we have no good reason to be there. I am also from the west, so I have a stake over what is done in my name.
If China, a place I have never been and know no-one from, invades another place I've never been and know no-one from, I don't care. I'd only start to care if they genuinely made things worse for the people that lived there, but what would our recourse be? Fund a fascist coup? Launch a counter invasion? Impose more sanctions, like we did to Iraq in the 90s and are currently doing to Afghanistan? Because that always works!
My take is kind of based upon the notion that Chinese rule would be better, or at least no worse, than the current Taiwanese administration. I don't know enough about their politics to say whether that is true, of course, because I've never really had the inclination to look it up. If you think Taiwan is better off as an independent state, so be it.
My point is that having a personal stake isn't necessary to worry about people.
Still not sure I agree, but okay. But what are you worrying about specifically?
Just characterizing an Americans interest in "protecting the sovereignty" as bad because they don't personally know someone from the place is not a good reason to disparage it. I mean, there are plenty of reasons that Americans intervention in Taiwan is bad, but this is point is unimportant.
I've never met someone from Yemen, I'm still concerned about the people there.