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Australia asks China to explain 'extraordinary' military build-up (www.bbc.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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Australia's defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have "such an extraordinary military build-up".

On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that "what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War".

It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.

"It's the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It's happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up."

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[–] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Taiwan has never tried to be independent of China. It still claims sovereignty over all of China.

Do you have a source for that?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    It's complicated.

    Unfortunately, the Wikipedia articles I found lack citations, so they probably aren't a good source. They claim that the ROC (Taiwan) claims all of the mainland.

    This reddit thread refers to the ROC constitution and interprets it as:

    In the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan area and the Mainland area, the following is stated:

    "Taiwan Area" refers to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and any other area under the effective control of the Government.

    "Mainland Area" refers to the territory of the Republic of China outside the Taiwan Area.

    "People of the Taiwan Area" refers to the people who have household registrations in the Taiwan Area.

    "People of the Mainland Area" refers to the people who have household registrations in the Mainland Area.

    The implication is that wherever this law applies, is what the ROC government considers to be "territory of the ROC outside of the Taiwan Area". Currently the application of this law overlaps the entirety of the PRC, minus HK and Macau.

    This the fun part. If you look at the ROC constitution, it makes [...] mention to Mongolia and Tibet.

    I don't know how much of this applies beyond the KMT.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    they don't, in any practical sense, and haven't since Chiang died in the 80s, probably even before that.

    however, they are threatened with invasion if they ever update their constitution to reflect reality, because that would be taken as "declaring independence".(even though they are completely independent anyway)

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    This is common knowledge available anywhere.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan_(1945%E2%80%93present)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War

    Those all have sources. There are also lots of reputable YouTubers with relevant academic credentials that have coved this, Asianometry and William C Fox are two that I recall covering the subject. I think Caspian Report did as well at one point in the last few years. This is like ultra basic surface level stuff everyone should know or severely question their sources and echo chambers if they are not made aware of this fundamental information.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Expecting people to wade through 8000 word articles in the hope of finding mention of your claim is why you're being downvoted.

    Imagine someone making the claim, 'Jesus hated gay people, it's obvious' and then when probed for a source, responding, 'this is common knowledge available anywhere:
    https://thekingsbible.com/'

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  • [–] -5 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Because that's a history question. "Taiwan" is not a country, it's a province of the Republic of China (ROC), which was the government of China before the communist revolution. They fled to Taiwan but their constitution etc still define them as the Republic Of China, with territorial claims over all of China

    Here is an article specifically on that exact topic

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Area

    Edit: The main "Taiwan" wikipedia article also has a map that can be selected under the label "Show map of Taiwan (dark green) with ROC Mainland Area and historical claims (light green)"

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Many, many countries have 'historical claims' that mean nothing in current day geopolitics.

    Claiming that 'Taiwan is not a country' is enough for me to know that this will not be a fruitful discussion.

    Literally the first line of the 'Taiwan' Wikipedia article:

    "Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia."

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  • [+] -10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    A 4th-grade history book.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Don't be shy, drop a link

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