[kinghtown]

I live in Taiwan. Very, very few people here are pro-PRC. Tons of Taiwanese people love China and culturally consider themselves Chinese (to be clear, not Chinese citizens.)

The vast majority of people disagree on if they should either give up and surrender to the PRC because they may launch missiles or invade once they have a non-laughing stock navy, avoid a bloody war, or if China wouldn’t dare to do that because it would trigger WW3 so they are safe to declare and protect their country (Taiwan.)

Everyone out here agrees that the PRC is basically evil.

Edit: Just want to add that a lot of you probably have no idea that Chinese people and Taiwanese people also get along with each other just fine. They are unfortunately a geopolitical chess piece on the table between the PRC and Deep State US.

I find it deliciously ironic that when Taiwanese people travel or work in China that they use their ROC (Taiwanese) passport and there is no issue with that. A lot of the conflict is also theatre for your American news cycle.

[rnmwfQ3f]

My wife is Taiwanese, so I can confirm Taiwanese and Chinese get along fine. Many marriages, friendships and business partnerships cross the Taiwan Strait.

However Taiwanese people don't use their passport to travel to China. China doesn't recognise it. They are issued a travel permit by the PRC, similar to citizens of Hong Kong and Macau.

[philliphaydon]

Not only that. You can’t just travel from China to Taiwan. It’s a bit difficult. Most people must travel as part of a tour group. Unless it’s business or you have family to sponsor you or something like that. Basically you can’t just jump on a plane and have a holiday in Taiwan from China.

[bjornstar]

This used to be true, but in 2008 direct flights between China & Taiwan were established and today it's easy to holiday in Taiwan from China.

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

[philliphaydon]

When president President Tsai Ing-wen was elected it became difficult. In both 2016 and again in 2019. China banned solo travel from certain cities in China to Taiwan.

[kinghtown]

I was just talking to someone who came back from working in Shanghai and that’s not what she told me but it’s very possible she misunderstood my question.

[routerl]

ROC and PROC don't recognize each others' passports, since both states hold the official position that the other state does not exist (and that travelling between the mainland and Taiwan does not, therefore, count as "international travel").

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

[kinghtown]

Well, I stand corrected.

[jabbany]

Besides some outlier ultra nationalists, most regular citizens of the mainland are also not huge fans of the CCP either and would happily get along with Taiwanese. And I have met some Taiwanese who even ironically have an overly romanticized view of the mainland --- seeing it as having made huge strides economically compared to the somewhat stagnant local economy.

At the end of the day, Taiwan culturally has more in common with the mainland than, say, Hong Kong does, because more of its history was spent together. Anything beyond is often a lot of "the grass is greener on the other side" mentality happening. People on both sides envy some aspects of what the other side has, but also would not trade what they have themselves to get it.

[cbHXBY1D]

> Besides some outlier ultra nationalists, most regular citizens of the mainland are also not huge fans of the CCP either

What? China has among the highest satisfaction with their government in the world. For example: "95.5 percent of respondents were either 'relatively satisfied' or 'highly satisfied' with Beijing."

Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-sur...

[Day1]

I imagine North Korea has a similar percentage of their population that would report either ‘relatively satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with Pyongyang too.

[dmix]

I always found it (vaguely) interesting that people from both Taiwan and Hong Kong refer to PRC China as ‘mainlander’. But I see how it makes sense.

> At the end of the day, Taiwan culturally has more in common with the mainland than, say, Hong Kong does

As a western for some reason I thought this would be the opposite.

[jabbany]

> Taiwan and Hong Kong refer to PRC China as ‘mainlander’

It's a general thing in the broad Sinosphere. Even the Japanese refer to (PRC) Chinese as "mainlanders" (大陸人/だいりくじん †) despite, you know, it being a completely different country for much of history!

†: You'll notice this sometimes in Anime. For example, in Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei's first episode the students respond to the teacher's unusual name with "must be from the mainland (=China)".

In modern usage, the "mainland" modifier is often used to get around the sensitive Taiwan issue. Different people may disagree on who is included in "China", but "mainland China" unambiguously excludes Taiwan even in the PRC.

Another fun fact is that English is woefully inexpressive when it comes to the cultural complexities of the broader Chinese cultural sphere. For example, a Taiwanese (or immigrant Chinese) person might identify as "culturally" Chinese (华人) but not "nationally" Chinese (中国人). A lot of this stuff gets lost in translation and ends up offending people inadvertently, because there aren't different English words!

> As a western for some reason I thought this would be the opposite.

Hong Kong split from the mainland in the 1840s and has been largely culturally (not necessarily politically) independent since. Modern Taiwan is the result of the KMT retreat during the civil war a _century_ later, in the 1940s.

A mainlander visiting Hong Kong will feel like an American going to, say, the UK -- it will feel familiar but distinctly foreign. A mainlander visiting Taiwan will feel like an American going to, say, Canada --- it will feel quirky but kind of like home. The mainlander might struggle to chat with a Hong Kong local as many won't speak Mandarin, whereas in Taiwan, they will have no trouble engaging in a conversation, with maybe only occasionally realizing that the other person refers to what they would call a "microwave" as an "electronic range" (this is not a real example. A real example would be something like a mainlander referring to "topping up (a transit card)" as "recharging" the card while a Taiwanese might call it "adding value" to the card).

[dumb1224]

We do get alone quite well at least in my circle. In my opinion people from Taiwan are actually more tolerate and warm than us. But increasingly young people from mainland are catching up and becoming more international.

I can't imagine how anyone from taiwan could naturally be 'Pro' chinese gov (given the media portrait and long history of rivalry), they would more likely support either 'green' or 'blue' camp, who will act on behave of people to interface with mainland policies.

The difference is some of my close Taiwanese friends are very weary of the political shows as they believe it is highly industrialised consumable entertainment while in the mainland people are quite innocent and audience are not mature enough and easily stirred up emotionally.