Taiwan’s New Digital Democracy

[sohkamyung]

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/03/12/inside-taiwans-new-digital-democracy

[nutcracker46]

Evidence that Chinese people really can not only govern themselves but also innovate in the development of democracy.

[homarp → nutcracker46]

Just curious: why writing "Chinese people" and not "Taiwanese people" ?

[ardy42 → homarp]

> Just curious: why writing "Chinese people" and not "Taiwanese people" ?

IIRC, it's because the mainland Communist Party's domestic propaganda pushes the line that the Chinese people aren't ready for democracy, in order to legitimize its authoritarian rule.

The fact of Taiwanese democracy directly disproves that. They're a very similar population separated by only 70 years of political independence (and the democratic changes were only in the last 30 years, IIRC).

[throwawww1231 → homarp]

I think he/she was pointing to their ethnicity, not so much about nationality.

[homarp → throwawww1231]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Ethnici... says

"The ethnic groups of Taiwan may be roughly divided among Taiwanese (84%), mainland Chinese (14%), and indigenous peoples (2%). The ROC government reports that over 95% of the population is Han Chinese, which includes Hoklo, Hakka and other groups from mainland China."

So I guess "Chinese" is a shortcut for "Han Chinese"

[mc32 → nutcracker46]

Who ever would say they couldn’t. The 1911 overthrow of the old guard is one example.

Now, to be clear, Taiwanese don’t consider themselves Chinese in the CCP/PRC sense. It’s tantamount to calling Canadians Americans.

[throwawww1231 → mc32]

The thing about the CCP is that they destroyed a lot of culture. Mainland Chinese have developed their own culture in a sense and because of their population, people tend to reference them when talking about Chinese culture. In truth, Taiwan and Hong Kong's culture is more closely aligned to the traditional definition of Chinese culture.