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    Re: I think you've missed the point - no, you have Keith Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on August 9, 2022, 11:26 pm, in reply to "I think you've missed the point"

    Sorry I think you've missed the point. First of all what do you mean by Irland is an "Irish island" - seems like a meaningless tautology, And it's wrong anyway, in a political sense, Ireland has two distinct citizenries, those in the Republic and this in the north. Indeed they are both "Irish", but that hardly advances our political understanding in regard to Taiwan. And you state Aotearoa is a Maori island, no it isn't, it belongs to the citizens who live there, some of whom are Maori, some are Chinese, some are Pacific Island and some are Pakeha - they all are New Zealanders, Aotearoans, Kiwis.At one tine it was a British island, but it isn't any longer, Before then it used to be a Maori island. but that's no longer the case either. Same with Taiwan, it used to be part of China, but that's not been the case for seventy years and as China only took over from the Taiwanese natives in the 1600s, I could on your own logic in regard to Aotearoa, say Taiwan is a Taiwanese island. .

    THe 23 million odd citizens of Taiwan have rights to govern themselves, and they should be given that option and China should just grow up. Are you really saying China has the right, by the threat or use of force if necessary which could precipitate a WW3, and certainly could cause untold human misery, to ride rough shod over the wishes of the 23 million Taiwanese themselves.?

    And in saying this I am being politically and morally consistent in my attitude to Russia's take over of Crimea. Crimea does not belong to Ukraine any more than it belongs to Russia, it belongs to the citizens of that region. It just so happens that by a large margin they wish to be part of Russia, not surprising when over half the population were born in Russia, or later,, under nominal Ukrainian control, when it was still part of the USSR.

    The only people who have a right to determine their own future are the Taiwanese, and they should be allowed to exercise that right, just as Eire exercised that right in 1922 and may be Scotland in the not too distant future.

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