Unfortunately for the US the decision flowchart for Taiwan is simple. The first decision box is: Are we willing to exchange nuclear weapons with China to defend Taiwan? Of course, the answer is No. Simple. That doesn't mean we can't arm Taiwan to the eyeballs, supply satellite data products, supply intel and advisors. All of that delays China for 2 weeks. The adult reality is that it is futile.
Wrong. China would not get into a nuclear war with America over Taiwan. Thanks for not knowing anything and contributing even less.
Whatever it takes to keep the evacuation moving. Eating humble pie is the least of our problems right now.
The thing that China fears more than our incremental arming of Taiwan is that we will release Japan from its post WW2 surrender restrictions and allow them to not only defend themselves but also take on offensive capability. And that the U.S. will arm them to the hilt. They don't fear that under Biden but they did under Trump. I am not sayin that Japan would be in a position to stop China but they definitely do not want an offensively armed Japan in their neighborhood. This issue used to loom in the background when RocketMan would act up and lop missiles into Japanese waters just to get attention. China knows that Japan has a right wing that is always crying for a restoration of earlier days and powers, and China knows that realistically the U.S. can not just watch North Korea and China encroach upon Japan. Under the treaty obligations we are obligated to either defend Japan or release them from their military restrictions. Japan has been out of the military game for a while but both the Chinese and the Americans know they still have it in em. Once a tiger has tasted blood, he does not revert to a vegetarian.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/co...y/news-story/7c9ce54f41bae7dd664f169b8ef60a46 Is the American spirit of solidarity now lost to history? Greg Sheridan US President Joe Biden. Picture: AFP 12:00AM August 19, 2021 The picture is horrifying. Human beings running by the side of an American plane as it leaves Kabul airport, some clinging on to the wheels or the fuselage, only to fall to their death a few seconds after the plane takes off. My colleague Helen Trinca has noted the terrifying resemblance to the sight of the figures who leapt or fell from burning skyscrapers in New York in al-Qa’ida’s 9/11 terror attacks. Those who fell to their deaths in New York, and those who fell to their deaths at Kabul airport, had one thing in common. They were fleeing the fires of Islamist terror. The Taliban, which has now taken power in Afghanistan, was the ally and host of al-Qa’ida at the time of the 9/11 terror attacks and it is still the ally of al-Qa’ida, with a recent UN report detailing the hundreds of al-Qa’ida activists in Afghanistan right now with a full welcome from the Taliban. Of course, future relationships between the Taliban and other terror groups remain unpredictable. But just as the defeat of Islamic State was a tremendous blow to the morale of international jihadist movements, so the territorial reconquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban, the defeat and expulsion of the Great Satan and the collapse of its local allies, will be a tremendous boost for global jihadism. It’s a big opportunity for China as well. And Joe Biden, in crafting the most incompetent, counter-productive, irresponsible, outright destructive withdrawal anyone could imagine – the Taliban could not have choreographed a more favourable sequence of mistakes by the US in its wildest dreams – has threatened not only US credibility but the image of basic US competence
if there ever was a reason to go nuclear on China, it's Taiwan. But, we should probably just give them a few patriot missile systems. Just iron dome tf out of the island
Excellent post. China fears Japan like nothing else. China knows that Japan is an actual no-shit warrior race and they got a nice snoot full in WWII to convince them. Japanese pilots in F-22s ought to give them pause. I've always been curious about the breeder reactor Japan operates for "research" that produces one thing.. plutonium. Gee I wonder what they do with their plutonium?