Science Forums 2

[Ganoderma]

Lets also remember that Taiwanese people ARE Chinese people....they all came over from china not that long ago....then got to suffer through Japanese rule (which was extremely horrible I am told).

First I should say that I am born and raised in Canada, so I can hardly speak for the people here. I have lived here for a year (in the country) and I am married to a Taiwanese women (I get a lot of interaction with all generations because of this). I teach English from ages 3 to 35 and here in the country it is well known they hate china.

it is basically a 2 party democracy here the green party being the pro Taiwan party (wanting democracy) and the blue party preferring the Chinese way. There are a lot of gray areas though, some like the idea of joining china in a similar regard as Hong Kong did, others (especially the older generations) flat out hate china. Some of the bigger issues Taiwan has with Chinas way of living is it is a communist nation, people here like democracy. Their standard of living is basically crap compared to here aside form the few wealthy large cities. Here in Taiwan the standard of living is not too much less than that of Canada and the US. medical here is not as good as Canada’s, but probably par with Americas in that you still need to pay for it (but not as expensive as US).

Schools here are quite good. In most areas people here speak Chinese and Taiwanese fluently (many city folk do not know much Taiwanese though), English is also a HUGE part of life. Most people here own their own house, car, pets, and send their kids to regular school and cram schools (this is VERY important. My village with 30,000 people has 1 elementary, one junior high, 1 senior high, 5 private kindergartens, and at least 6 cram schools (mostly English). What I am trying to say is the people here now live quite nicely and have a great standard of living.

The people who are pro china (definitely seem like the minority) are usually of the business type in the cities. Many large businesses move to china, due to cheaper labor. I think the fact that it is cheaper to manufacture there is making more and more people want to do business there rather than here. This is certainly having its effects here. From many people i speak with in the country, I have yet to meet one person who wants to be part of china. My brother in laws' wife is from china.

The other main problem (which is what is going to doom this country I think) is it needs to import almost everything. This island is tiny, 300km long I think and under 200 wide. It has 23million people... one of the main trading routes is the strait that runs through Malaysia and Indonesia (i forget the name). The big players (Japan and US mainly) are working to protect and granted malaysia/indo to protect the waters but kept much of it open. China is also now expressing interest in this area which if controlled by them could ruin Taiwan within the month (that number is from a magazine called "Taiwan Review" which states Taiwan has enough reserves to last 30 days...).

china also has a law stating that if Taiwan officially declares itself its own nation they will come here and take it. Period. So Taiwan has a sticky position that they cannot declare themselves a nation, and other countries are, understandably, cautious not to say anything of the sort.

Unfortunately i agree, it will happen. but it is DEFINATLY clear many people do NOT want to join them. At least until they become a more democratic fair union (i don’t need to go into detail about Chinas human rights history...).


One last thing*
The US, in 1987?, signed an agreement with Taiwan stating that if china does invade Taiwan the US will help out (how I don’t know). They used to be her ea fair bit helping with training and such. But the last 2 years Taiwan has seen a fair decrease in US interest. Last election the US sent very few crew to monitor things here (china always circles the island around elections with boats, presumably to scare the people).

My wife’s sister and her husband work for the air force here and seem to notice a large decrease in American interest.

Anyway this is all opinion, its hard to say what will happen….this country already has a very bloody history!