Taiwan independence: I went to Taiwan and asked just about everyone who was willing to talk to me about it what they thought about China's stance on Taiwan. I was surprised to find that about 50% of the people I talked to were in favor of Taiwan being part of China. I looked into it further and found that polls have shown the same thing: about 50% of Taiwanese favor being part of China. Again, I suspect that the whole conflict might be something of a charade of sensationalistic news reports or some political anti-China rhetoric.

OT: TAIWAN IS NOT PART OF CHINA. Even though my wife seems to  mysteriously think so. Source of large debate in my family. But that's what happens when someone with taiwanese roots marries someone from PRC.