Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Taiwanese counterpart Tsai Ing-wen. Photo: VOA
Frank Chen, Asia Times: How Xi aims to take Taiwan without pulling a trigger
Will Taiwan be reduced from a self-ruling democracy to a special administrative region of Beijing even without going through a fight?
Rumors have swirled on both sides of the Taiwan Strait since the beginning of last year that Chinese President Xi Jinping was mulling taking back the wayward, self-ruling island of Taiwan in one fell swoop amid growing militancy among the Chinese masses.
Some have gone so far as to suggest that by the early 2020s the two sides would be in a state of belligerence as Xi, unlike his predecessors, has no scruples against waging a full-blown war to recapture what Beijing considers a renegade province.
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WNU Editor: I have always believed that when China makes the decision to take-over Taiwan .... and they have been mulling this for a very long time .... they will do so when they have the military resources available that can effective enforce a blockade of Taiwan using the Cuban missile crisis and how the US Navy blockaded Cuba as their model. This will of course open a number of retaliatory measures from the U.S. and from China's neighbors .... and I include economic sanctions and a military response to such a crisis. Will this be successful to deter China .... I do not know. But I do know that the enormous political/economic/and national security impact of a successful Chinese takeover of Taiwan cannot be underestimated. It will completely change the geopolitical situation in Asia, and it will directly impact the national security interests of the U.S. and its Asian allies. This discussion has so far been off the grid within think-tanks and foreign policy specialists. My suggestion is that they should start thinking about this now.
4 comments:
Groups of people join each other through legitimate and honest plebiscites.
Everything else is cause for war.
Taiwan has wanted to be part of China since 1949 although that desire is probably going away as the Taiwanese see that they have got along and that the Libs in power in China are not going to go away and are corrupt (they're libs).
"you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
China could have had Taiwan a while back, but they took the wrong tack, since they are libs.
www.dictionary.com/browse/you-can-catch-more-flies-with-honey-than-with-vinegar
If the people fight the Chicoms will lose.
Taiwan is the best open to the "second Island Chain" for China. This mean that's absolutely strategic to take over Taiwan.
Jac,
China could have Taiwan for free without muss or fuss.
But the condition would be competing political parties, fair & open elections, and a certain set of laws that protected people and their political and property rights.
The people who grew up in the communist system would not be guaranteed a seat at the table of a New China and for this reason they want it their way or the highway.
Xi is a fool. Unlike him people did not look back in the Cultural Revolution as something nice or glorious. People admire their toughness in getting through it, their hard work (they were working hard before and after the Cultural Devolution), and surviving it. They do not think it was good governance. Really the Cultural Revolution was not the governance desired by the communist party although it was a logical consequence of communism and human psychology. The Cultural Revolution was a hostile take over by self centered man using his star power/pop icon status to effect a coup. Not that governance before or after were that much better when you consider the Great Leap Forward (or was it Backward) and the Gang of Four.
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