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

Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 321 posts

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#31

Post by yogthos »

The elephant in the room is that Taiwan is a Chinese province and Taiwan's legal standing is not in question [1]. This is the position held by the UN, and it's the fundamental basis for having diplomatic relations between US and China per Potsdam Proclamation [2] that was signed 77 years ago between China, the US & the UK. This position has never officially changed. And here's what US State Department says on their official page [3]:

    The United States approach to Taiwan has remained consistent across decades and administrations.
    The United States has a longstanding one China policy**, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act,
    the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances.  We oppose any unilateral changes
    to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait
    differences to be resolved by peaceful means.
[1] https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/no-taiwans-status-is-not-unc...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration

[3] https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-taiwan/

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#32

Post by asah »

anonkogudhyfhhf wrote: post #25
cm2187 wrote: post #7

What I don't get is that to invade Taiwan, China needs a large amount of ships and cargo planes, both of which seem very vulnerable to modern missiles (as the Russian army found out in Ukraine). Do the chinese have a solution for that?

Honestly Taiwan should go nuclear. It might be there only solution

Assuming they haven't secretly done this somehow, I assume the only reason is that Western powers have forbade it (i.e. made non-proliferation a requirement of their support).

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#33

Post by mulmen »

RajT88 wrote: post #29
mupuff1234 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taiwan will reveal them at the very last moment when war is imminent. If war is still preventable showing the nukes will just escalate things.

We periodically park Aircraft carriers there to de-escalate PRC activity. I am sure we have provided them some weapons. Not sure conventional or nuclear.

We also sell (give?) them a lot of weapons. The Taiwanese air force is largely comprised of US airframes.

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#35

Post by stale2002 »

yrdmb wrote: post #27

[flagged]

> How about letting the chinese people in mainland china and taiwan decide the matter for themselves.

Taiwan currently has decided for themselves that they are happy to accept military weapons from the US, to defend themselves in the case of any military action against them from China.

If that is Taiwan's decision, they should be supported and allowed to make it.

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#36

Post by Animats »

If there is a war, it will not be a short, victorious one. It will mean the destruction of cities in both Taiwan and mainland China.

Russia has the advantage with Ukraine that there are no major Russian population or industrial centers in range of Ukraine. That's not true of China and Taiwan.

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#37

Post by yogthos »

jmclnx wrote: post #3

All they need to do is look at what happened in Hong Kong. If China did not do what they did in Hong Kong, Taiwan may be headed to some kind on unification. Now, they would be crazy to even entertain that thought. This issue lies directly on China and no one else. If I had a say in Taiwan, I would announce it is now a independent Country.

[flagged]

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#38

Post by krisoft »

mupuff1234 wrote: post #14
cm2187 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be idiotic is to do that secretly. The whole point of nukes is that the enemy (and its public opinion) knows you have them and intend to use them if necessary.

Taiwan will reveal them at the very last moment when war is imminent. If war is still preventable showing the nukes will just escalate things.

> Taiwan will reveal them at the very last moment when war is imminent.

Ok, they reveal them. What is next? Nukes are not magic. They are just weapons. What do you think would happen once they are “revealed”?

What delivery mechanism are you proposing? Should they be aimed counter-force or counter-value? (Meaning are they trying to shoot the chinese nuclear launchers or are they lobbing them into chinese cities?) How are you protecting the nukes in Taiwan?

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#39

Post by dirtyid »

jmclnx wrote: post #3

All they need to do is look at what happened in Hong Kong. If China did not do what they did in Hong Kong, Taiwan may be headed to some kind on unification. Now, they would be crazy to even entertain that thought. This issue lies directly on China and no one else. If I had a say in Taiwan, I would announce it is now a independent Country.

[flagged]

Re: Taiwan is a vital island that is under serious threat

#40

Post by foobarian »

anonkogudhyfhhf wrote: post #18
itake wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All they need to do is look at what happened in Hong Kong. Maybe I am diving too much into the weeds here, but my understanding with HK is when the UK left and setup autonomous region with China in 1984, China/UK agree to leave the gov unchanged for 50 years after 1997 [0]. This interim government that was setup is controlled by CCP members. My understanding is the Taiwan gov has always been completely separate fro…

Taiwan govt ruled China and lost to the Communists in the civil war. Both countries see Taiwan as part of a greater China

It's a governmental net-split!
Post reply on HN