https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3122668/ch...
Not to mention, it's quite presumptuous to claim that the self-determination of the people of Taiwan are simply a tool that benefits the "white west."
Finally, your value judgments don't really contradict anything I stated, which is simply that "great powers will meddle in the affairs of smaller nations."
Just because someone done something in the past, doesn't make it right necessarily for everyone to do in the future.
If the the US was not getting economic and political projection in Taiwan, they would dump them in a second and/or create a lot of trouble for them.
I did not say it was right at all. You are the one making moral judgments here. I'm simply stating historical facts. Notice I did not at any time make the claim that just "because everyone does it" makes it excusable or right. But it does make it understandable, as an institutionalized practice or character trait of empires.
> If the the US was not getting economic and political projection in Taiwan, they would dump them in a second and/or create a lot of trouble for them.
You are introducing non sequiturs at this point. At no point did I support nor reject empire. Furthermore, Taiwan, like other U.S. allies or client states, has its own vested interests in being part of an alliance, because they (ostensibly) receive protection. You are denying that Taiwan has agency in seeking out advantageous (in its view) alliances. That is very condescending, and frankly, chauvinist.
Not to mention, the American Revolution was partially won because similar powers France and Spain backed the revolutionaries. The Confederacy courted both Britain and France and there was a chance that the former could have gotten involved in the Civil War over the Trent Affair. Great powers have been dipping their toes into regional conflicts since time immemorial. It's highly credulous to assume they'd do otherwise.