GMK News Tonight: Oxford Union - Taiwan Debate

This House Believes that Taiwan's Future Lies in Reunification with China

GMK News Chief reporter can recall 1995 when a visiting engineering professor staying at his house expressed his concerns then that one day China would invade his country. Today, in March 2025 with the world waiting for the outcome of peace talks over the Ukraine War, there is the threat of war on a second front, namely that one day in the not so distant future, China will carry out their increasing threat of invading Taiwan. With the reunification of Hong Kong signifying China's desire to increase their financial strength comes another , manufacturing and domination of silicon chip technology. The third front is the Middle East with the unfolding events in Gaza and the Lebanon. With Trump talking more and more about a possible looming third world war, tonight GMK news reports from the Oxford Union in possibly one of the most significant and precedented debates ever, on Taiwan and the possibility of it one day being invaded by China. Opening for speech, a future can’t rely on something unstable. Can no longer believe that Tawain will be self autonomous, a self determined utopia. Tawain’s future is not that but about reunification with a china. Tonight’s debate not about ideology but about reality. Not like Gaza should surrender or Russia should occupy Ukraine. Mr Mutley, Dr Shew, Dr David Lowe, Hong Kong activist. Today tawain is caught in a geopolitical paradox. Tawain cannot afford to resist China. Taiwan would cripple. Out numbered, out gunned, 2m troops v a few hundred thousand. If conflict comes, Tawain would not win. If war breaks out would the US put Tawain before Los Angelas. Not about if reunification happens but about how it happens. Best option is to do it through negotiation rather than on the battlefield. Where it can keep its autonomy protected. Opening speech from opposition, debate is dangerous as well as ridiculous. Reunification would bring about obliteration Tawain would not exist. These are the guests and they are most welcome. Debate about fundamental right of people. Researcher on the other side in the pocket of China. Would love to see the receipts. What Chinese people want is not Tawain but want their own country back. Would Tawain be treated any differently than those in Hong Kong? Tawain today is free and democratic. History of Taiwan from 2025 to 2050. China last decade in 2035. Trump throws Taiwan under the bus like he has done with the US. Nuclear brinkmanship. Things change for the better after 2035, president Musk works with China for cleaner energy. Professor gave a humorous prediction of what international relations would be like up to 2050. Dangerous form of AI. All power corrupts. Tawain reunited with Chinese mainland 2043 peacefully. What will happen after 2050 nobody knows. We need to think about what kind of future we want and how we will get there. Opposition, 2nd speech, resistance of few against many. Situation in Tawain like Britain and in 2WW, Dover facing German troops in France ready to invade. Then have out Churchill’s fight them on the beach speech. Tawain has to have the same spirit. Make no mistake China has a plan to be global hegomony wants 21st century to be a Chinese century. Imagine a bar in Tawain in 2035. Less worry coz China have occupied more relaxed. China is committing a genocide like they did in Tibet. The proposition want us to hand Tawain over to an evil regime. We can compare Ping to Winnie Pooh. Reminded us of Timaniin Square Popularism runs riot in Europe. Appeasement doesn’t work, never has and will never will. Lights of the world will go out and will never be relit. Russia is in the pocket of China. Third For speaker expressed concern that the opposition would suggest he was in the pocket of the Chinese Communist Party. One China policy, 1949, Nixon visited China in 72. China has avoided outright conflict. One China policy has worked. Differences between China and Taiwan cannot be resolved. If China invades and gets into conflict with the USA. We will have world war three. One China policy has avoided outright conflict. China and Tawain need to stick with the status quo. Tawain has moved from marshal war to multi democracy. Told the chamber to obtain in the debate. Fourth opposition speaker, force should decide future of nations if vote for this motion. Tawain is not a province of China, does not want to part of the people’s republic. PRC started in 1949 during civil war, check. Tawain 23m people reject idea of unification. Only 10 per cent support. Bad idea for China to absorb Tawain. What good will it do China? Nothing. It will weaken China military, politically or economically. How does China expect to rule 23 million? It will create security crisis for China. Taking Tawain by force would be disastrous. It would be castrophic. Invasion would be more difficult than d day. It’s not unification but destruction. The invasion would cripple Chinese economy as it becomes isolated. Military invasion costs outweigh the benefits. Why risk something for everything. China and Taiwan can co exist democrstically. You can’t Germany and England to China and Tawain. China and Tawain as the same country can be traced back to the time of Jesus Christ. Japan surrender unconditionally to hand back Tawain to China. PRC in China. Next for speaker, Chinese civilisation never been destroyed. Mongols conquered but still kept their culture. If people of Tawain do not want to be Chinese, they don’t know what they are talking about. Lincoln used brutal force to take back the confederate states in the 60s. China can do the same with Tawain. Future of Tawain will be determined by 23m people in Tawain and 4.3 billion of China. Want to see unification by peaceful means. Kissinger more dangerous to be an enemy of the USA than a friend. Next against speaker, you only have freedom of speech in China once. Tawain is part of a Chinese dynasty but does substantiate reunification. Checks and Balences don’t exist in mainland China. Is it really about political realism. Bullies always win.? Very First Nation visited after education was Tawain. Chinese people don’t actually want it 60 percent don’t agree, only 15 per cent actually want unification. British people respects rights of Scotland. Don’t force unification allow snp to exist. It is not about the probability about will it happen. Ping wants to out Mao as a great China leader in history. Closing speech for for. There were no floor speeches. The speeches were after the debate. Beijing is going to rule you. Can Tawain independently defend itself will need support of US like in Vietnam Afghanistan. Hungary in 1956, now Ukraine. Waves a picture of an American finger, laugh from some members. US cannot maintain a war in Tawain. You cannot have a cake and eat it. When unification happens, you won’t get what you fully want. Work hard for a peaceful unification. Closing speech against. Will we reach any conclusion at all. It is not about global stability. It is in the end about what the Tawain people want. China has the most advanced surveillance system. Enthnicity, history and culture is what it is about. Tawain has existed for 6000 years. Chinese migration does not justify annexification. History has suggested otherwise. We like democracy here don’t we? Peace and stability. China had already said unification will happen peafulky or militarily whether we like it or not. Hong Kong so peaceful, before now all gone. China wants to recapture Taiwan for the semi conductors. If unification takes place real chance of world war three.