this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 187 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

The news media needs to stop using the word "reunify" to refer to the PRC's threatened imperial conquest of an island they've never controlled.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

The news media needs to report what is true and verifiable, without adding their own interpretation (except for labelled opinion pieces).
In this case, the true and verifiable fact to report is what Xi told Biden. And without checking primary sources, I'm sure he used a word meaning "reunify".

[–] [email protected] 73 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

If they're using a false term but quoting someone they should use quotes:

Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will "reunify" Taiwan with China

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Iit should always be apparent there is editorialization happening tho. Kinda like [sic] -> that is obviously the author clarifying they are not misquoting or misspelling

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

What you've written is still editorialising. The way it's written is also clear who was making the statement, Xi was. In the eyes of China it is reunifying, so no matter one's opinion, it is their stated opinion, so seems weird to put "reunfiy" in quotations when the rest isn't.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

report what is true and verifiable

if they did that there wouldnt be much news, a lot fewer journalists, less jobs overall, and much less advertising revenue.

never gonna happen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

But it's a good yardstick to measure the news you're reading. Always ask yourself:
"Are they reporting on something that happened? If yes, do they say who's seen it happen?"

Way too many "news stories" nowadays boil down to "some no-one posted something on X about something they haven't themselves witnessed".

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yep, this word is used intentionally by Xi and he knows he means "conquer the nation developed by the people that escaped his predecessors".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The nation wasn't developed by the people who escaped. That's an ahistorical way of framing the issue

Taiwan was developed by the overthrown proto-fascist military junta who just lost the civil war. After taking the island, they didn't tell the people of Taiwan that the war had been over and they were no longer China until 1991. The first labor laws outlawing slavery were introduced to the people of Taiwan in 2006. The people of Taiwan still consider themselves China (it is afterall the name they go by, not Taiwan) and full Taiwanese independence is still a minority held belief on the actual island.

Just to be clear, I am a supporter of their independence, but this is a very messy situation in which the political party who comrade the country is the same fascist party who lost the war in the first place and still maintains to the UN that they are the legitimate government of the mainland. Full separation is convenient for the West, but neither side actually wants that, they just don't want to be ruled by either fascists or communists, and I think that is incredibly fair for all people actually involved to want.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

full Taiwanese independence is still a minority held belief on the actual island

Excuse me wut

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

of an island they've never controlled.

Oh boy this might get me downvoted. Saying the Communist Party never controlled it is a tautology. That's what happens when there's a civil war that turns into a stalemate: one side does not control the land of the other side. So of course the Communist side never controlled it. This is ducking the nuance of what the actual situation is, that there was a civil war that never ended.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Even before that Taiwan did not belong to the rest of China.

There were some settlers from the main land, but the indigenous population always controlled most of the island and the Chinese settlers were careful not to antagonize them.

This lasted for hundreds of years, pretty much until a brief period at the end of the 19th century when the Chinese government decided to send troops to brutally subjugate the indigenous population, only to shortly after lose control of Taiwan to the Japanese.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

It's a historical fact but how is it a tautology? Territory can change hands during a civil war as evidenced by the RoC no longer controlling China. Unless I'm misunderstanding something. Either way I don't think that changes the point, if that's a tautology then claiming that it can be reunified is a contradiction.