• KollontaiWasRight [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So, basic commentary (was high when I listened last night, so my memory is a little spotty):

    1. Folks blaming Robert Evans for this should note that he's not on the episode at all. Chris Wong is a long-time affiliate of the podcast and has done episodes on Evans' other podcast, but he isn't an alter-ego of Evans. Probably. Evans could be a stellar voice-actor, I don't know.
    2. The ultimate position that Wong takes is that self-determination should be the first and only razor on the subject of what nation a given territory is part of, but he then sets that aside and gives a completely separate history of Taiwan that centers the indigenous population up until the late Ming Dynasty, after which the indigenous population gets sidelined more and more (which, at least, does reflect the reality of what happened to the indigenous population of Taiwan, too, I guess)
    3. The history given is mostly accurate, and doesn't take a particularly fond position on the KMT, who are described as exactly the ultra-nationalist crime-syndicate-cum-political-party that they were. Details are, perhaps, a little sparse in terms of how the KMT fell from dictatorship and was forced to disarm, and the violent takeover of the island is not necessarily given its full due in terms of the sheer horror, but no attempt is made to suggest that the KMT were anything but monsters.
    4. Wong supports a continuation of the status quo as a practical matter. He indicates that he thinks that independence is the ideal state for Taiwan, but that it just isn't worth the war it would trigger. He disdains the ties between the US and Taiwan, but also says that he can't really blame the "progressive" forces in Taiwan for aligning themselves with the US, given the military threat they are under.
    5. The PRC is depicted as a continuation of Chinese colonial projects in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan, specifically as a settler-colonial state that gets to pretend otherwise because of the convenience of geographically contiguous holdings. This seems like a more credible argument with regards to Tibet and Taiwan than it does with regards to Xinjiang, given that the current population of Xinjiang was settled there by a Chinese state in the first place, after the... Ming? dynasty (I think...) effectively genocided the prior population there.
    6. There's some vaguely interesting discussion toward the end about the fact that the indigenous population of Taiwan tend to support the KMT over the DPP, largely because of patronage networks created by the KMT.
    • spectre [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I wish every podcast came with a summary like this haha

    • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      given that the current population of Xinjiang was settled there by a Chinese state in the first place, after the… Ming? dynasty (I think…) effectively genocided the prior population there.

      It's the Qing dynasty.

      There’s some vaguely interesting discussion toward the end about the fact that the indigenous population of Taiwan tend to support the KMT over the DPP, largely because of patronage networks created by the KMT.

      This is a really sore point among DPP supporters. That is when they aren't pretending Hoklos are indigenous to Taiwan.

      • Fishroot [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The settling of thé Xinjiang region started in Tang Dynasty with the western commanderies. The region was “pacified completely” during qing dynasty when the Qing government collaborated with the uighur to liquidate the buddhist ethnics in the region iirc

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      self-determination

      This just seems like weasel words bullshit. There's never been "self determination" for anyone. Either there's a soldier with a gun to your head or a accountant with a gun to your head.