That's basically it really. What's the history? Why does the West defend is so vehemently? Should they? Should I? I don't actually know anything about it
When the Nationalists lost the civil war, they retreated to Taiwan because it was an island and thus easy to defend. The West defends it because it serves as one of many military outposts for encircling China, including Japan, South Korea, Guam, etc.
Both the Nationalists and Communists see Taiwan as a part of China, the dispute is over which government is the legitimate one. Recent movements in Taiwan have started abandoning the project of re-taking the mainland and instead asserting independence.
The formal status creates some legal weirdness, but at the end of the day there is a lot of exchange between Taiwan and the mainland, not the least of which is trade.
You should oppose reactionary Western puppet regimes.
They officially dropped the claim to the mainland in the early 90s, shortly after they stopped being a military dictatorship.
That is completely untrue. The ROC constitution only mentions Taiwan once and it's in the newer additional articles. You have the phrase "free area of the Republic of China" which is a rather explicit claim that the ROC still formally claims the entirety of China, which includes the Mainland as the "not free" part of China. In summary, there's the ROC in its entirety, there is the free area of the ROC (Taiwan, Kinmen, Penghu), and there's the not free area of the ROC (Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau).
But we know they had not done so is because if they had actually dropped claims to the Mainland, the PLA would've long since invaded Taiwan and overthrow the ROC. To rescind claims to the Mainland is to de facto uphold Two Chinas, which is considered a red line by the PRC on par with Taiwanese separatism.
If you're talking about actively waging war to "liberate" the Mainland from the CPC, active war stopped by the time of Chiang Ching-kuo when the ROC was still under martial law. Liberalization under Lee Teng-hui didn't change the material reality that the ROC was no way militarily capable of overthrowing the PRC and reestablishing ROC control of the entirety of China.
The US likes to claim they're DeFeNdInG DeMoCrAcY. In reality, they supported Taiwan for decades while it was a military dictatorship under Chiang Kai-shek. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan)
Bubble tea comes from Taiwan and is now a multi-billion dollar industry that is deeply entangled and entrenched in the US economy
I can't think of anything the West supports in terms of geopolitics which should be supported by anti-imperialists. There might be an accidental exception somewhere but it's certainly not their stance on the Taiwan province
Taiwan was the old Chinese government that was overthrown. China could have taken it back, but the US got involved. Taiwan, despite not running the mainland, claimed ownership over it (and still does), hence why it's considered the same country.
There's more to the story imo.
What everyone else said is true. The nationalists and communists waged competing revolutions to overthrow the Qing and the warlords and the Japanese Occupation. The communists won, establishing the PRC on the mainland while the nationalists lost, establishing the RoC on Taiwan. Both claimed control over both the Mainland and Taiwan.
The US propped up the RoC, but also wanted to do trade with the PRC with the goal of putting a wedge between the PRC and USSR as well as encouraging the PRC to liberalize. The PRC would not trade with the US while they recognized the RoC as China, so the US adopted a position of recognizing the PRC as China and the ROC as Taiwan.
They have also, through the CIA, funded cultural projects in order to foster a Taiwanese national identity. This has been incredibly successful to the point where much of the Taiwanese "left" support Taiwanese independence. It also lets the US challenge the PRC's claims to the island by saying "look, the progressives in Taiwan don't want to be part of the PRC, they want to be independent!
So now the US can be hawkish towards China, not under the aggressive posture of claiming the RoC has claim to the mainland, but under the defensive posture of "protecting Taiwanese independence."
First of .. dont ever use Taiwan (this is just geograhic Place) the State ON that island is called
"The Republic of China" it is the remnetn of the "republic of china" that lost the civil war against Mao..
"The Republic of China" and the Peopelsrepublic of china BOTH lay claim to the hole of CHINA
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Republic_of_China_%28Taiwan%29_Territorial_Claims.jpg
if you just train yourself to say " republic of china" instead of Taiwan .. you should understand the issue way better from now on out.. Both identify as THE TRUE CHINA
