Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

scmp.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#31

Post by sonnyblarney »

thwawayjuju wrote: post #21
21 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US never quite supported Ukraine the way they support Taiwan, they will be forced to have an response. US will surely impose tough sanctions on China, which would be much more disastrous to them than the sanctions US imposed on Russia after Crimea. EU will likely join in. What will China actually gain from this? Not much besides scoring some political gains at home which they don't need anyway.

From a military perspective, Taiwan is a extremely important to China because of where it is located. Their fear is that the US would use Taiwan as a base of operation to refuel and attack China. It’s in their best interest to reclaim that land. Like all politicians, domestic policies are usually harder to gain political points vs foreign policies. It is also much harder to fix when problems arise. This is why head o…

"Their fear is that the US would use Taiwan as a base of operation to refuel and attack China."

Nobody is thinking that the US is going to attack the Chinese mainland.

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#32

Post by 21 »

whatyoucantsay wrote: post #29
21 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US never quite supported Ukraine the way they support Taiwan, they will be forced to have an response. US will surely impose tough sanctions on China, which would be much more disastrous to them than the sanctions US imposed on Russia after Crimea. EU will likely join in. What will China actually gain from this? Not much besides scoring some political gains at home which they don't need anyway.

> EU will likely join in. Doubtful. The EU, and France in particular, has been selling China weapons for over a decade.

France canceled the delivery of two completed ships built for Russia, a $1.5 billion contract, because of Crimea.

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#34

Post by rqs »

Hehe, an underwater tunnel huh?

How about to build an underwater tunnel between the mainland and Hainan[0]?

Oh wait somebody mentioned it[1] at 2010, and someone else did it[2] again at 2018.

Well, then good luck to that tunnel.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait

[1] (Reference) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-Soh... (2010)

[2] (Reference) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-4 (2018)

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#35

Post by whatyoucantsay »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #30
whatyoucantsay wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the US didn't honour its commitments and let Taiwan fall, Japan, Korea and all other neighbours would no longer be able to rely on US protection and seek their own weapons of mass destruction. The instability of that scenario would almost certainly lead to WW3 and be more detrimental to US interests than a skirmish over Taiwan. > Supporting pro-China elements in Taiwan, spending a generation 'educating' (i.e. prop…

No. A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would not directly threaten Japan or Korea as China has never had any claim or interest there, furthermore, it would massively increase Asian-US/EU ties. It would rock the world and everyone would be setting up new military ties to ensure border integrity. It doesn't matter how popular Chinese reunification is today, because the mainland is getting ever more powerful and can orchestra…

What is this "reunification" you speak of? Taiwan has never been part of the PRC. Before its current state, it was part of Japan. You could go back to the peak of the Qing Dynasty, but clearly that isn't a nation that currently exists.

It's like talking about "reunifying" Austria with Germany based on the previous borders of the Holy Roman Empire which once contained both.

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#36

Post by lookACamel »

whatyoucantsay wrote: post #27
Freak_NL wrote: post #2

> […] rising political tensions between the self-ruled island and Beijin […] mean that the scheme is unlikely to come to fruition any time soon. However, some researchers said it was possible that Beijing would start work on the project in a unilateral, and largely symbolic move. Sometimes I wonder if we're nearing a time when we'll see China simply do a Crimea and annex Taiwan when geopolitical circumstances mean no…

Highly unlikely. Ever since the US Congress passed a Taiwan Relations Act, military defense of Taiwan is a enshrined in law. Furthermore, Taiwan is a fully democratic nation with a population slightly larger than that of Australia. The entire crux of post WWII US geopolitical strategy rests on a promise to defend Japan, Korea the Philippines, Taiwan and various other territories in exchange for those territories not…

> slightly larger than that of Australia.

This is false. It's slightly smaller.

Re: Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland

#37

Post by whatyoucantsay »

lookACamel wrote: post #36
whatyoucantsay wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly unlikely. Ever since the US Congress passed a Taiwan Relations Act, military defense of Taiwan is a enshrined in law. Furthermore, Taiwan is a fully democratic nation with a population slightly larger than that of Australia. The entire crux of post WWII US geopolitical strategy rests on a promise to defend Japan, Korea the Philippines, Taiwan and various other territories in exchange for those territories not…

> slightly larger than that of Australia. This is false. It's slightly smaller.

"A couple of years out of date" would be the more generous way to say "false". Australia very recently grew past Taiwan's population.
Post reply on HN