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America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

economist.com

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Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#31

Post by baal80spam »

avgcorrection wrote: post #18
swamp40 wrote: post #14

It would be a proxy war, not direct US troop involvement. But China says any response from Taiwan will be taken as a direct response from the US. So, that could go south in a hurry. I think Ukraine showed China exactly what the world response would be to such an invasion - i.e. shunning, so I doubt this would happen except as a way to goad the US into a war. And China certainly isn't ready for that yet. From the US P…

The whole world has not shunned Russia over the invasion.

OK, whole/most of the _civilized_ world did.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#32

Post by twblalock »

ergonaught wrote: post #29

I’ve always found it strange that military planning and training is considered newsworthy and informational. I’d be a whole lot more upset and surprised if USA and China were not preparing for a war over Taiwan. It is one of the top 3 most likely sparks for war between them. Which is not to say that it is “likely”.

Seriously. We should even be training for war with Canada -- just in case.

Getting ready for a war does not provoke war. Both sides are doing it, we know each other are doing it, we do war games all the time all over the world and it's fine.

Freaking the public out about how the game is played is the real danger. That happened with the balloon incident too -- oh gee China spies on us? Yeah, and we spy on them too, and we've got way better stuff than balloons, and they know it.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#33

Post by [deleted] »

swamp40 wrote: post #14

It would be a proxy war, not direct US troop involvement. But China says any response from Taiwan will be taken as a direct response from the US. So, that could go south in a hurry. I think Ukraine showed China exactly what the world response would be to such an invasion - i.e. shunning, so I doubt this would happen except as a way to goad the US into a war. And China certainly isn't ready for that yet. From the US P…

[deleted]

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#34

Post by Invictus0 »

yalogin wrote: post #27

This has a very ominous inevitable tone to it. I question how wise it is to even publish an article with this tone given how grave the consequences of such a war would be. Just reading the title sent a chill for me. Any war like that will push the whole world into protracted recession and it will be hell for every country.

Is your head in the sand? The US has been preparing for this war for years.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#35

Post by roundandround »

ashwagary wrote: post #13

It's awful that the whole world will possibly be dragged into China's incomplete civil war because of anxious interventionistas. Is this the tipping point for WWIII or will it be isolated enough to not spill over?

I don't really see how it can't spill over. For example, I've been wondering why China's neighbors wouldn't see Taiwan's independence and/or absorption of Chinese naval capability as an opportunity in their territorial waters disputes and I think it's unlikely none of them would become proxies for (or get favorable arms deals from) the US or others interested in containing China.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#36

Post by avgcorrection »

yalogin wrote: post #27

This has a very ominous inevitable tone to it. I question how wise it is to even publish an article with this tone given how grave the consequences of such a war would be. Just reading the title sent a chill for me. Any war like that will push the whole world into protracted recession and it will be hell for every country.

The Press’ place is to massage public opinion. It is not their place to worry about the consequences of yelling Fire.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#37

Post by 1270018080 »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #25

I disagree. War is too expensive for both countries and no calculus beyond lunacy can reason it to be a positive

Russia invaded Ukraine for basically no reason, it still happened. If you have enough fervent nationalism in the population and an authoritarian government, lunacy isn't going to stop anything.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#38

Post by sethrin »

swamp40 wrote: post #14

It would be a proxy war, not direct US troop involvement. But China says any response from Taiwan will be taken as a direct response from the US. So, that could go south in a hurry. I think Ukraine showed China exactly what the world response would be to such an invasion - i.e. shunning, so I doubt this would happen except as a way to goad the US into a war. And China certainly isn't ready for that yet. From the US P…

US troops are already involved simply by being in the same theater. If you're planning a strike on Taiwan, you would be foolish to assume that the US carrier groups are just going to sit around while you do that. Therefore any plan for attacking Taiwan is necessarily a plan to eliminate that threat. From the US perspective, we are absolutely not posturing: we currently have lives on the line defending Taiwan, just like we had lives on the line defending Berlin. Hopefully these tensions will be resolved by other means, but if not...

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#39

Post by sb618 »

yalogin wrote: post #27

This has a very ominous inevitable tone to it. I question how wise it is to even publish an article with this tone given how grave the consequences of such a war would be. Just reading the title sent a chill for me. Any war like that will push the whole world into protracted recession and it will be hell for every country.

I definitely appreciate that inflammatory articles might push us closer to war but it also seems rather dangerous to cover up anything that suggests war. That feels a bit reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain before WWII.

Re: America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

#40

Post by no_wizard »

Is anyone really equipped to go to war with the USA?

Unrestrained war with the US war machine would be....catastrophic, to say the least. I mean for both parties, but the US out spends everyone by a wide margin[0] and the US military is very advanced and well resourced, and well trained. Even if the fighting was just constrained to Taiwan, it would be pretty bad for everyone, but I think it would be especially bad for China.

Now just for the mental exercise, if we take nukes off the table and assume actual, all out, total war, I'm pretty sure the US can level just about any country on earth, or at least, we have the hubris to believe we can.

With nukes? well, I mean, I had a good life I guess, thats pretty apocalyptic, but I'm certain the US would have more than enough ICBMs and the like to level an entire country in hours

[0]: https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2023/jan/military-...

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