By Ghassan Kadi for the Saker Blog
As the European colonialist empires were being dismantled, many nations that gained independence inherited enormous problems that remain unresolved to-date. If anything, countries like India and Pakistan are currently in a bigger state of discord than the one that led to partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947; and this is an understatement. They are adversaries, both nuclear capable and armed to the hilt. The reunification of Greater India does not seem plausible; at least not in the foreseeable future.
On the home front, with the French slicing Lebanon away from Syria and the creation of the independent state of ‘Grand Liban’ back in 1920, Lebanon was soon to blossom, producing a tale of substantial success. But this success came to an unceremonious end as the Civil War broke out in 1975, after which Lebanon was not only destroyed, but rendered as a failed state and one that exports instability to its neighbour Syria, to which it historically and demographically belongs.
Foreign interference, mainly from the West, turned Lebanon into a dagger pointed at Syria’s soft underbelly. Certainly, many Lebanese disagree with this statement and regard Syria, not the West, as the source of instability in Lebanon.
Almost concurrently, the origin of the creation of the modern state of Ukraine in 1922, sits with the USSR. And later, it was Stalin who negotiated having a vote for Ukraine in the UN General Assembly only to be followed by Khrushchev who gifted Crimea to Ukraine. But for a long time, Kiev was historically the capital of the Russian Empire, just like Damascus was once the capital of today’s Lebanon.
With financial incitements and bribery, corruption became endemic in Ukraine and the West eventually turned it into Russia’s Lebanon. Not surprisingly, some Ukrainians, corrupt in nature and their cronies, only see facts from their own blurred vision and tinted spectacles, but historic and demographic facts cannot be changed.
Pending issues between Syria and Lebanon are not the business of the West or any other foreign entity. The onus is on the Lebanese and Syrians to resolve this situation which can only be achieved when Lebanon returns to its Syrian roots. Many Lebanese may need more punishment to reach this understanding and acceptance.
Likewise, the Ukrainian/Russian crisis is an internal issue that the rest of the world has no business involving itself with. It is that section of Ukrainian Western cronies who have caused the problem, and this needs to be firmly and effectively dealt with.
But the British, French, Dutch and others were not the only producers of post-imperial havoc. The USA played a huge role in this ever since the end of WWII.
Vietnam resolved the partition issue, but the cost was enormous. Korea still hasn’t, and it won’t for as long as South Korea is under the influence of the Western Hemisphere. To complicate matters more for Korea, South Korea is an enormous technological, industrial and financial success whilst the North is not. Having said that, the economic dichotomy did not stand in the way of the reunification of Germany. In hindsight, and against the divide-and-conquer doctrine, the West applauded German reunification. But one would not have to be cynical to conclude that the West regarded it as a stepping stone towards more influence in Eastern Europe and an opportunity to move closer to Russia’s borders.
As the influence of the West is waning globally and domestically, instead of turning its focus into rebuilding its home-grown literal and virtual rust belts, the West continues to set traps for future global conflicts.
China took back Hong Kong in 1997 because the agreement between it and the UK expired. But Taiwan is a different matter. Taiwan exists as an independent state, even though no longer unanimously recognized internationally as being such. But until the Nixon administration opened up dialogue with the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan was the UN member that represented China and even had a permanent position in the UNSC; including the Veto power.
But Taiwan became separated from the mainland only because the Nationalists (headed by Chiang Kai Shek), escaped to Taiwan after their defeat by the Communists (headed by Mao Zedong). The West saw in two Chinas a status quo that is weaker than a single united China, and one that they could use as a bulkhead against China. It therefore stood against any attempts of reunification. The argument however that the impasse between China and Taiwan is an internal and domestic issue is valid.
Chinese reunification is a matter of time. It is hoped that both parties will negotiate it peacefully instead of it involving a military takeover, one which could see a heavily armed Taiwan put up a big fight. If Taiwan thinks that the West will come to its aid and fight on its side, all it has to do is learn from Ukraine’s experience.
Whilst the parable of Lebanon vis-à-vis Syria may appear proportionally inadequate to use as an example to describe Ukraine as Russia’s Lebanon or Taiwan as China’s Lebanon, the principle applies despite the huge difference in size and military capacities of China and Russia in comparison to Syria. But this is one of the shortfalls of Western thinking, one that believes that it will forever be able to bully everyone, including other superpowers.
For decades, statements alluding to any aspirations for reuniting states that have been divided by larger global powers were seen by the West-dominated international community as taboo, as attempts to destabilize the world. In the Levant for example, it is still almost illegal to say that Lebanon and Syria should be united. And when China says that Taiwan is a part of China, the West fumes with anger and regards the statement as one that is aimed against the national and security interests of the West. And of course, Russia is ‘not allowed’ to say that Ukraine is part of historical Russia.
Ironically however, and as the Western anti-reunification rhetoric intensifies, there has never been a better time for nations still reeling from post-colonial divisions to reunite.
Political maps constantly change and always have. India and Pakistan, and with the later addition of Bangladesh, will probably remain as separate entities for a very long time. The two Koreas will have to wait, but perhaps not for as long as India and Pakistan. Lebanon and Syria have more critical problems do deal with currently than to worry about reunification. But if anything, in being the bully and intervening between Ukraine and Russia on one hand, and Taiwan and China on the other hand, the West is inadvertently forcing both Russia and China to take affirmative action and bolster their bilateral relationship at many levels. We have thus far seen Russia saying ‘enough is enough’. Whether China employs the current state of global turmoil and the over occupation of the West with the events in Ukraine to move towards Taiwan remains to be seen.
Lebanon? my dude, historical Palestine in its entirety should be returned to Greater Syria
Which means the Downfall of Apartheid Israhell.
Aw, then the world will begin to know peace.
http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/the-downfall-of-apartheid-israel/
China has no need to take Taiwan by force.
All it has to do is constantly remind Taiwan of Zelensky and Ukraine and soon they will reunite with China.
It’s not up to Taiwan to make decisions, it’s USA?
Taiwan is so tied economically and socially to china the issue is a farce. If the Us managed to break it from china it would end up as it once was in the hands of the native people of Taiwan. The lovers of western oligarchy would move to the west, the rest would move back to the main land.
Are you thinking the “reunification” of Taiwan will be as benevolent as the “reunification” that brought Hong Kong under the totalitarian thumb? Can it be claimed that modern China is China as it traditionally was? It ravaged the language, customs, history, and society in ways that disfigured it wholly. Chiang Kai-Shek, a low-life warlord, escaped by the skin of his teeth, but did in fact bring with him a retinue of a million soldiers from across China who carried traditional Chinese culture on their backs. This is Taiwan. Had China gone through an equivalent overthrow to Russia’s 1989, all would be different. Why would Taiwan want to bury itself under Xi’s thumb, thinking it was “reuniting” with a motherland that had transformed from mother to wicked witch?
Sir would you rather have Taiwan under the benevelont thumb of Woke Uncle Sam (BLM is great and turned on a dime that BLM really is not great, when it comes to the white blue eyed Ukranians fleeing the war zone, this is hypocracy at its best, I guess the leaders of Taiwan need to get a dose of Zelensky’s medicine that is being administered right now)
“Can it be claimed that modern China is China as it traditionally was? It ravaged the language, customs, history, and society in ways that disfigured it wholly.”
LoL. You must be living in a (neo)-Cold War time warp where everybody in China is wearing Mao Suits circa 1960.
FYI: For the last generation or so, China has been promoting a return to traditional Confucian values.
“Are you thinking the “reunification” of Taiwan will be as benevolent as the “reunification” that brought Hong Kong under the totalitarian thumb? Can it be claimed that modern China is China as it traditionally was? It ravaged the language, customs, history, and society in ways that disfigured it wholly.”
for such a comment, you’re pretty ignorant of the history of the region, if not Taiwan itself. Taiwan has always been traditional Chinese, even before Chiang and his KMT party took over Taiwan after the Chinese civil war. If you even look further past 1949, Taiwan as a jap colony (was ceded to them in the treaty of shimonosheki in 1898 after the Qing lost the first modern naval war to the jap’s due to corruption, stupidity and poor knowledge naval warfare), it was more Chinese then. which was why after ww2, the jap’s had to return Taiwan back to China.
just think, when Chiang and his KMT landed in Taiwan, the yusa admin thought he was a lame duck who’ll lose to Mao and the communists eventually. lucky for Chiang, the korean war changed that attitude cos yusa lost the war to Mao and the koeans, despite them saying they fought them to a tie. (if so, then why don’t they discuss it much in their history books, cos they lost badly to an ill-equipped, but mentally strong Chinese “volunteer army”.) even now, with the dpp in power, if not for the yusa, you think the dpp would’ve won the last election?
which brings me back to your Hong Kong BS that it was brought about “under the totalitarian thumb” of China. guess what, ignoramous, HK was RETURNED to China cos the brit’s leased the new territories from China for 99 yr’s. tho HK island was ceded to the brit’s during the 1st opium war, but can’t keep cos loss of the new territories would make it impossible for HK isle to go about it’s biz. hence, the brit’s trying to negotiate a deal that would benefit them vs China. turned out they lost on that and ever since tried to break, if not use HK to break up China. just look at the HK riots and how the yusa and the brit’s tried to create a colour revolution there (similar to the Taiwan sunflower movement earlier that led to the dpp coming to power), yet failed cos China was patient enough and outwitted them!!
so please ignoramus, read up on your history before saying anything about it.
Syrian roots? Western partition? I’m no fancy writer but I do know the area belonged to the Ottoman Empire for a long time until the latter’s collapse.
As a mountainous country, this area acted as a refuge for many religious minorities in the area, including descendants of the crusaders. A sort of middle eastern Switzerland.
Lebanon proved its worth as a nation by repelling in its own fashion both Israeli and Syrian occupation over the past fifty years.
“Taiwan” is only a colloquialism. The entity’s official name is the Republic of China, and to say that it is “no longer unanimously recognized internationally” is a rather…mild way of putting it. Currently, the ROC is officially recognized by 14 countries, the largest of which being Guatemala and Honduras. It pays through the nose for keeping those formal ties.
From the very beginning–even during the years when it was isolated and impoverished–China has never wavered on its insistence of “One China”, even when outsiders foolishly argue that it is only a matter of “semantics”. It is now clear that this has been the correct policy, even though it took many decades.
Language will generally preclude these reunifications. Lebanon will not join the Syrian Arab Republic, but it might be reunited into the Arab Republic of the Levant, if a suitable political status can be negotiated.
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir won’t join the Republic of India, but a Confederation (Commonwealth) of the Southern Eurasian Sub-continent? Who knows? Especially if a suitable political status can be negotiated.
These are ethnically, linguistic and religiously diverse areas, how can they unite? Example one is the Russian Federation!
“Language will generally preclude these reunifications.”
Steven
Some would tend to replace language with wisdom as the facilitator of preclusion; as Mr. Heraclitus understood over 2,000 years ago – although some have not yet caught up with Mr. Heraclitus, and likely never will do so, because Mr. Heraclitus is dead.
” returned to Greater Syria”
Lustration is often unwise wise since change is a constant whose variables include trajectories and velocities, as the Sorcerer’s apprentice finally understood to some degree, at least momentarily.
Some “generals” are stuck in fighting the “last war” where some spectators are enmazed in frames being transcended – some refer to this incorrectly as shape shifting through attempting to conflate lateral with linear, as Mr. Cole observed – how strange, the change, from major to minor.
Fortunately some are neither “generals” nor spectators, and also understand that lateral change is a constant – an apparent paradox to others – whose variables include trajectory and velocity, and hence design and implement “fuzzy” strategies without pre-determined destinations and contingent trajectories as functions of purposes, although many others do not; forgetting the observation of Mr. Donne that Time and Tide wait for no man – or even women- thereby leading to mishaps, apparently also including losing China.
Hence how strange, the change, from major to minor will likely increase trajectories, non-linear spectra and velocities everytime we say goodbye.
Or if “baby boomers” require different references perhaps Jethro Tull’s living in the past will be deemed fit for purpose.
Small matter about how “nationalists” (fascist client) “escaped” to Taiwan. The “escape” was by US Navy transport…so for “escape” read “transported”…many say that the MacArthur Plan to re-conquer China by invading from Taiwan and Korea (using a-bombs) was the reasoning behind both the transport (7th fleet I think) and the attacks by the fascist south Korean dictator that became the “Korean War” were a successful attempt by the US to maintain control over one axis of the Earth Island of Eurasia.
Agree otherwise…time of Change and Nations will realign and reshape.
Somewhat off topic US Bombing of Chinese cities https://youtu.be/rvJgLrgju3k (including Wuhan!…20,000 dead and city burned for 3 days)
Germany, Korea, Vietnam and the Han core of China (which includes Taiwan) are all ethnicities divided by the Cold War. The same might be said for Ukraine as part of Russia. I’m not so sure about India, which like Europe is composed of a bunch of squabbling sub-nationalities. If anything, I’d expect India to break into smaller parts rather than being rejoined to Pakistan.
A good article in many ways but the statement that North Korea is not a successful industrial nation is incorrect. If you get a chance to go there you will see what they have done. That is one of the reasons the USA keeps the north and south divided: the two together will be one of the world’s leading industrial nations.
Re Hong Kong, There was never any agreement that expired. The British seized HK by force of arms and refused to give it back. Only in 1997 were negotiations finally successful as the British tyranny over the city became untenable and Britain pulled out.
Re Taiwan, It was never recognised by any nation as an independent state. Taiwan was never give a seat at ther UN. Rather the KMT rebels were allowed by the US to represent China at the UN for some years and then they were kicked off so representatives from Beijing took the seat, since Taiwan is just a Chinese province.
Christopher have you been in North Korea? I would really love to hear more, I have seen a Video by someone that showed it has a subway and pictures of a pretty modern city. I have been very curious to learn more.
A friend of mine, an English man living in Bkk, was a trade rep for NK last decade. I perused the trade mags he had and was astonished.
They had everything one could want; textiles, tools, gems, agricultural and mining equipment. And remember their military equipment is all home made, everything from submarines to planes, small arms, missiles, radars, etc.
There is an extensive rail system too.
Don’t believe the bullshit that it’s a country living in the stone age.
They rebuilt their infrastructure under the military bullying and sanctions of the US. Every building was obliterated in the massive war crime we call The Korean War.
The sooner the Zionist controlled US/UK/NATO/EU is defanged the better off the world will be
Now is the time for China to take Taiwan back. Uncle $hmuel’s forces are spread thin, and
he wouldn’t be able to stop China any more than he can stop Russia. If they did, perhaps
Washington’s threats and bullying will cease once and for all.
China was never in fear of Uncle $hmuel’s forces. If it was it would NOT have entered the Korean War in 1950 when it was dirt poor and 2-3 generations behind in weaponry sophistication. China did not push the issue of unification militarily because it did not want the human sacrifices that will undoubtably be the consequences if it did. A unification in name but not in spirit is no better than separation but under peace. As long as dogs such as Uncle $hmuel and Suckle Japs dare not build weapon bases and establish garrisons on the islands of Taiwan, the separation doesn’t hurt China none. Don’t buy into the so-called “loss of face” paranoia narrative. Leadership in China don’t really pay that much attention to what others think of them on superficial levels of ‘images’.
But when dogs (or rather, modern day wolves) DO build mass destruction weapons on the islands, by buying off soulless traitors and controlling ordinary citizens with brute forces, you will see firestorms falling from the skies and surging from the seas from the directions they call The Mainland. This would be on scales that Uncle $hmuel and Suckle Jap have never seen before, because today’s China is quite different from the one they saw in 1950.
War between equal forces would not settle in matters of days, weeks, or months. It will always be years or decades. War of years or decades are wars of attrition and supply/production logistics. Uncle $hmuel has lost that war to China a decade ago, not just for wars within the region near China or in South China Sea. It is no match on global scale already. Uncle just haven’t yet realized this or is reluctant to admit to this. The best Uncle can hope for is total mutual destruction. MAD is what China wants to avoid.
RT has been blocked on Telegram. VPN via Switzerland / Belarus / Singapore all fail. It looks like Disqus has shut down commenting on Andrei Martyanov’s site.
The Empire of Lies is assuring that their’s is the only one heard. I fully expect prosecution of anyone in the US expressing an opinion contrary to the official position.
Yes sir! US about to go full retard.
They have done that years ago!
…it just became undeniable for any sane person…
https://www.bitchute.com/video/BkOw8dk0dFwa/
I agree. I believe one of the aims of the US/NATO Ukraine event is to start and spread the next great global threat (as the covid story fades) – you will be accused by being a “domestic terrorist” if you express an opinion different to the guvmint’s one. The witch hunt will become serious – coming to your town soon!
And then there is Belize…which was once a province of Guatemala which the British separated, to keep a presence in Central America…
And dont forget Kuwait, which was once a province of Iraq which the British separated, and which Saddam Hussein wanted to take back…
Nike = Taiwan
a first highly successful transnational … see Jaime Diamon JPMChase Bank’s Top power broker’s annual report
China via globalization has indeed reaped the West’s greedy overreach
Nato is the sheriff of Nottingham. Putin is Robin Hood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErQMxqvfBU
I live in Taiwan, Taiwan will probably go to China eventually. It is a matter of demographics. By the time I’m a grandfather, my kids are now elementary school. I doubt Taiwan could de anything to prevent a takeover. Now Taiwan is capable mentally and militarily to put up a strong fight. China just needs time for an easy victory
Israel was bombing Syria with their ‘spice 250’, they drop 16 from a F-16 from Lebenese airspace and they can glide up to 100 Km into your window.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.-2Z7XERCGbtQ7LCgczlmmAHaET?pid=ImgDet&rs=1
but no more
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/02/15/676896/Hezbollah’s-Air-Defense