Okay, so it goes without saying that China wants Taiwan back and truly believes that pursuing the reunification of Taiwan is moral. Evidently, or at least the majority of Taiwanese do, the country wants to maintain its independence. Additionally, Taiwan is using its relationship with the United States to stop China from forcefully reunifying Taiwan, despite China's assertion that this is not the United States' concern. The United States considers the freedom and self-government of all nations to be inalienable rights.
Over the years, there have been some rather severe threats and remarks. According to a senior general in the Red Communist Chinese Military, China would use nuclear weapons against the United States if the United States intervened in Taiwan and defended it against a forceful reunification. Even though those were combative words, that general truly believed that they were spoken from the heart. Since this was a while ago, have things evolved? No, I would argue that they haven't, and there are still a lot of people who feel the same way at the top of the Red Communist Chinese military. taroko gorge
Needless to say, China's comments regarding Taiwan's threats of nuclear war with the United States if we intervene are not helpful and rather troubling, especially considering that China manufactures anti-ship missiles intended to destroy aircraft carriers and that the United States is the only nation with aircraft carriers floating in the Pacific Ocean near China. The Pentagon also knows that China has hundreds of nuclear missiles aimed at the United States, is building anti-satellite missiles and stealth technologies, is interfering with our enemies in the Middle East, and is moving its weight all over the world as it looks for resources.
Are the US diplomatic efforts with China wise? Not exactly, and yes, I've witnessed some errors made in this regard by previous administrations. China places a high value on their desire to fulfill their destiny and achieve complete reunification. There are parts of the Chinese government that would fight the United States in war over this. They are of the firm belief that Taiwan is and always has been theirs rightfully, and that in order for China to be made whole, they must incorporate it back into their nation.
There are a lot of Chinese spies in Taiwan, and Taiwan uses businesspeople to get information from them. It's a shame that this issue cannot be resolved through trade and commerce. When it comes to Taiwan, China is extremely enraged because it believes the US is interfering in matters that are not under its control; sales of F-16s, missile defense, etc. In the meantime, China is using its military might everywhere; Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Philippine and Vietnamese fishing and drilling incursions, US challenges with North Korea, arming the Taliban, selling weapons to Iran, previous game playing in Iraq, etc.
Not to be forgotten are the “string of pearls,” their tentacles, additional ports, maritime chokepoints, and their aircraft carriers—one is finished, and two more are on the way. In the meantime, they have 6,000 spies working for corporate and military defense contractor espionage in the United States. They are attempting to hack into every computer in the United States that is worthy of information, extorting people with REEs and barriers to entry to get R&D and proprietary information, dumping on US markets to kill our industries, engaging in economic warfare, and manipulating the stock market.
Naturally, their exploits in Central America, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, and other parts of Africa as they search for raw materials and attempt to secure additional markets must have upset them. They had a few setbacks, but they were as many or more than the deals that went well. They approach the situation in a manner that is distinct from that of the United States. While we hold our corporations accountable for taking bribes, they view it as “just doing business” and continue to find that they are outperforming our diplomatic efforts. The rest of the world does not trust China. Even if they don't implode due to bad loans, bad stimulus, corruption, civil unrest, inflation, pollution, energy scarcity, water availability, food challenges, job flight, and let's not forget that China also has a problem with overproduction, it will hurt them even as their economic forces grow.
Back to the Taiwan conflict between China and the US: many of the old guard consider US intervention to be an “act of war,” and Mao's grandson has not yet written his name into history. China would be biting off more than it could chew to screw with the US Navy, much less the rest of our military, and the US doesn't need help from NATO or anyone else. China may have more ships, but that's only for the first 30-minutes of the war, as there wouldn't be much left after that. Fortunately for the US, China has pissed off so many of its neighbors and is disliked due to its economic and trade policies. We also do not require satellites to accomplish this.
Naturally, China is not stupid; therefore, it is putting a lot of money into building its military. They get a lot more for their money in their military than we do because of our excessive regulation, cost structures, bidding, politics, and other nonsense. However, “IF” we don't curtail it under stupid US administrations that don't understand the real world or allow the Chinese to continue intellectually stealing us, we could easily be decades ahead in our advanced systems. The RAND report on China's international behavior, in my opinion, was bogus and extremely dangerous.
However, when that report was released, it may have served a purpose prior to the G8 Economic Summit. I do believe the DOD is correct. Taiwan should not be compelled to reunite unless it chooses to do so, which may also one day be the case. Sadly, if that did occur, one must also take into account the fact that the “selling-out” could have been easily induced by political spies, extortion, trade promises, bribes, etc. There is some of that going on. Because there are too many spies and too many leaks of information, I worry that the United States will sell Taiwan advanced weapons.
In point of fact, all we need to do is send them the plans for the Lockheed F-16 fighter jets, the missile defense system, and other technologies. I also worry about selling the South Korean F-15 Slam Eagle, but I also know that doing so is important, just like selling Israel JDAMs or helping with the THEL is important for Israel. Therefore, I am not condemning the Taiwanese government or military because they are already fully aware of the difficulties, just as the United States is aware of them at home with Chinese spies, corporate espionage, and ongoing hacking attacks (many intelligence analysts believe these attacks are state-sponsored, as am I).
I worry about Obama because he is not in control of things and is weak in this regard. I also worry that he will give in to appeasement and commit the same error as NAZI Germany when they took over their first country. We need the most powerful military in the solar system, so the United States should not be afraid of war. Also, we shouldn't act stupid or make threats, which is another reason this article is toned down and just focuses on the facts.
China, on the other hand, “really believes” that Taiwan is their island and wants it back, and we need to understand where they are coming from. China is also aware that if it went to war with the United States, it could stoke unimaginable nationalism, and it could easily afford to lose its 1 million-man standing army without skipping a beat. 100 million Chinese would sign up the following day if China and the United States were at war. That's a lot of hatred and willpower directed at the US, and if the US doesn't stand firm, she will give in.
Now, the Chinese, who are of African descent, believe that President Obama is Black-American, so we cannot ignore that fact and assume, believe, or know that he is stupid (regardless of the fact that Obama won the Nobel Prize for naivety or intelligence). Look at how hard China is working to get around the US on economic and trade issues right now. The lack of win-win trade with China is to blame for a portion of this enormous imbalance; the rest is really our fault due to ineffective economic policies and arbitrary regulations. Because China could produce enough for five markets the size of the United States, the previous trade policies of South Korea were the wrong model for China. Sadly, the total GDP of the world is only 3.5 US markets.