this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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Taiwan has insisted it is a sovereign, independent nation, after US President Donald Trump cautioned it against formally declaring independence from China.

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[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 52 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

It took only a few hours after Trump warned Taiwan not to try declaring independence...

...for the Taiwanese foreign ministry to remind that Taiwan is already independent.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation.

On Saturday, presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said it was "self-evident" that Taiwan was "a sovereign, independent democratic country".

She added, however, that Taiwan was committed to maintaining the status quo with China - in which Taiwan neither declares independence from China nor unites with it.

Many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate nation, though most are in favour of maintaining their current status.

As for the actual consequences: in the best case, nothing changes and maybe the US will get a new president soon. Because explaining the depth of the US-Taiwan interdependence to the current president is clearly a too big job.

The US is a client state of Taiwan just as much as Taiwan is a client state of the US. If one gets in trouble, the other also gets in trouble. Actually, most of the world gets in trouble in case of Taiwan, so everyone who needs a device with some CPU or memory has a vested interest in nothing whatsovever happening with regard to Taiwan. And this probably even includes people in mainland China, although I think they can reasonably claim to be almost independent of Taiwan. :) I certainly cannot, I honestly declare considerable dependence on Taiwan. :)

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 12 hours ago

If the US gets a new president soon, it'll be Vance, another corrupt shitstain.

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 10 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Too soon. I believe China's plan is to cripple Western chip production, but first they need to establish proper domestical chip production so TSMC suddenly going boom isn't going to cause them economic and technology devastation

EDIT: I remember reading something about TSMC having built in a kill-switch in case of an occupation

I also believe people underestimate the consequences of this war. TSMC produces 70% of the world's chips. We already have shortages. All of the world would feel it much more than Ukraine war.

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Let's add some depth here though. Taiwan/ROC (the country with the demcratic government) produces a majority f the high complexity computer chips, but China/PRC (the Unitary Communist country) produces the majority of low complexity chips, and does not produce any sgnficant quantity oh high complexity chips.

That said, as the Americans trued to squeeze the PRC on the chips topc, they have moved to being much more self-sustained on chips, and im the near future will not be iverly impacted if ROC chip production goes haywire. The PRC have made it their strategc goal to no longer be bullied on Petroleum, nor Technology, and are dumping money into operations to support that strategy.

When the PRC sees the right circumstances they will assume control of the ROC islands, regardless of TSMC self-destructs.

[–] Tolc@lemmy.world 0 points 7 hours ago

multiparty elections doesnt mean democracy. Single communist party led state doesnt mean totalitarian

[–] FarceOfWill@infosec.pub 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The siuation for the rest of the world is the same either way.

China (and allies eg. Russia) get chips and the rest of the world (eg. Ukraine) have to live whith whatever taiwanese refugees can ramp up over decades in which country they decide is safe enough to flee to

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It took only a few hours after Trump warned Taiwan not to try declaring independence…

It's been standing US policy going back to the Nixon Administration not to recognize Taiwanese independence.

You can't lay this shitbird at Trump's feet. Go blame Eisenhower for his choice of VP.

[–] amateurcrastinator@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah nothing current can be blamed on this orange turd. If it wasn't for the ones that came before him you would be part of the UK and who knows trump would have been some sort of assistant to the king. Grow the fuck up and own the fact that us has presently fucked the entire planet by voting for these shitbirds twice.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Yeah nothing current can be blamed on this orange turd.

There's plenty to blame him for. Iran is a great example. Trump pulled a trigger that no other president was willing to touch, going on 47 years.

But the policy he's stating wrt Taiwan is the exact same policy we've been operating under since before he was born.

Grow the fuck up

"The adults in the room" crowd has been shitting the bed since Reagan. I cannot imagine a bigger tell that your foreign policy is shit than "My policies are mature and yours are for babies".

Particularly when the policies would accelerate yet another armed conflict.