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

Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 127 posts

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#101

Post by jmclnx »

Caius-Cosades wrote: post #90

Reading between the lines it seems to me that Taiwanese political leadership may have forgotten to ask themselves this rather simple question; What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership? You don't get second chances in life. You don't get a new body after you've been mangled. Or starved to death, as would be the likely scenario in a armed confront…

Seems a few China shills here, I will bite.

> What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership?

So here is an answer: Knowing what is really happening in the rest of the world by reading news articles from many Countries. They will not have to worry about a Social Score System. In Taiwan one can criticize the Gov and people. People in Taiwan will not have to worry about what the say. I am sure there are many more things.

Social score:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

Well, I guess I will never get a Visa to visit China due to this post since I heard they can deny a visa based upon your social media posts.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#102

Post by shrimp_emoji »

jmclnx wrote: post #101
Caius-Cosades wrote: post #90

Reading between the lines it seems to me that Taiwanese political leadership may have forgotten to ask themselves this rather simple question; What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership? You don't get second chances in life. You don't get a new body after you've been mangled. Or starved to death, as would be the likely scenario in a armed confront…

Seems a few China shills here, I will bite. > What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership? So here is an answer: Knowing what is really happening in the rest of the world by reading news articles from many Countries. They will not have to worry about a Social Score System. In Taiwan one can criticize the Gov and people. People in Taiwan will not ha…

They are an imperial shill.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#103

Post by kkfx »

tim333 wrote: post #92
kkfx wrote: post #85

Just to clear some facts: - China (Popular Republic of) have NO NEED to invade Taiwan (or Republic of China, that's what they call themselves) because an aero-maritime blockade would suffice to starve Taiwan to death; - they do not do so simply because they want Taiwan semiconductor industry, witch is still ahead of their own domestic one, otherwise Taiwan is damn easy to erase; - being a small HYPER-dense island Tai…

China would have problems with an aero-maritime blockade if the US opposed it.

As the USA would have problems confronting China: https://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/NDS-commission.html or a journalistic summary of the same report https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/07/us-might-lose-war...

Consider a thing: last real war between modern powers was the Korean wars, those with experience there are not on duty anymore. Modern war in the west thereafter was only against far inferior enemies and most of them was lost anyway. Meanwhile PRC have reasons from their citizens perspective to attack Taiwan, USA citizens to not feel much about Taiwan since most do not understand it's semiconductor superpower, so on one side you get motivated soldiers, on the other not so much.

State that China internally it's a dire state LIKE USA, so both do not want a war, but while China do not want it for real USA need it to keep the dollar as a global reserve or they'll face a civil war due to rising inequalities and poverty, something that's essentially started in the UK even if formally they state they are only some fascist rioting for a recent stabbing, I've no doubt those who push/start the riots are fascist, but I pretty sure most participants are just impoverished people also made angry by recent conscription attempt. USA are in a far less bad situation, but not so far https://asiatimes.com/2024/07/one-inch-from-a-potential-civi...

Beside that we in the west feel no reason nor desire for a war, knowing it's something needed by the ruling class against the people, most do not even know/believe resources are scarce enough to demand a war to grab them in quantity to keep our living conditions at the expense of someone else. While in many other countries people feel the need for a war for themselves, so no matter much their armaments, tech level, and so on, they are mostly young, motivated and desperate enough.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#104

Post by kkfx »

gedy wrote: post #100
stogot wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which UK civil war?

Likely talking about Southport riots: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_riots

Exactly, so far the press say that's are just a bunch of fascist, and I've no doubt those are the organizers and some most thugs in action, but most of the participating mass I bet are just impoverished people, like https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/oct/30/my-student... or https://news.sky.com/story/food-bank-users-refusing-potatoes... and also https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4165370/national-scandal-... etc.

UK economy failed due to excess cleptocracy from very few, UK people start to be tired enough to riot. Perhaps they stop, perhaps they grow to the point of a full scale action against the government, I do not know, but that's to me an evident start/harbinger of a civil war.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#105

Post by godelmachine »

maxglute wrote: post #81
godelmachine wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree with the last paragraph. Shedding blood != waging war. China has never dared until now, and will never dare in the future, to engage in a heads-on conflict against the USA. It has skirmishes and conflicts with almost every neighbour. The PRC defence forces do not have the worldwide fighting experience which the US has. Nuclear deterrence acts strongly against the PRC, and they won’t do anything stu…

PRC fought US+UN (Nato typo) in full scale war in 50s, to stalemate, while PLA was dramatically inferior vs gap now, and when PRC didn't have nukes, while US did. So not only did they dare to fight US on much worse odds, they did so not deterred by nukes, which US planners mused about using. Shedding blood with several nuclear powers isn't nothing, there's simply no country more willing to challenge other nuclear pow…

You failed to take into account US allies like Japan, Phillipines, South Korea and India which are more than ready to help us bring down PLA.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#106

Post by EasyMark »

antognini wrote: post #37
godelmachine wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Probably the Americans have dissuaded them from building a nuclear warhead in exchange for guaranteed protection?

The US has pointedly never guaranteed protection for Taiwan. Its policy has been "strategic ambiguity."

That’s what they say to the public. My suspicion is they have an ironclad diplomatic agreement behind the scenes

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#107

Post by EasyMark »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #54
keepamovin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

We wouldn’t get involved if tsmc hadn’t taken over the world.

China wants the ability to choke off all of the (east and south)China Sea, especially the strait of Taiwan. They are becoming more militant and want to make an example to the world of what challenging the “will of China” means. I don’t think they even care that much about TSMC capabilities and knowhow

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#108

Post by EasyMark »

mdorazio wrote: post #23
worstspotgain wrote: post #17

If there ever was a major conflict with a diplomatic alternative, this is it. China's attitude towards Taiwan is mostly petty and dates back to the drunken bar fight with Chiang Kai-shek, who's been dead for 50 years. The key to peace is the general understanding that the two countries will be reunited at some unspecified future point. Historically, this has been the keystone that let the doves carry the day. In the…

The obvious counterpoint to this argument is what happened in Hong Kong. A diplomatic resolution seems unlikely to have a net-positive outcome for Taiwan under the current CCP regime.

Right, CCP will never let democracy flourish “inside its borders” it’s much too dangerous to them, even in a territory, or even a large metro area. Liberty is in diametric contrast to them controlling every aspect of their citizens’ lives

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#109

Post by EasyMark »

worstspotgain wrote: post #76
tivert wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An EU-style arrangement seems ideal in the medium term. It lets Taiwan have a positive long-term influence on Chinese politics, while preventing HK-style crackdowns in the other direction. That's a total nonstarter though. The CCP is not going to subordinate itself and cede power to some EU-like supranational authority that it doesn't utterly dominate, and it has also demonstrated how much its own guarantees are wo…

Obviously China would utterly dominate the super-national authority due to proportional representation. The point is to move towards unification while Taiwan remains a sovereign country in the interim. Taiwan becomes more of a part of China over time, while hopefully China's politics become more like Taiwan's.

We thought bringing more capitalism would open up the CCP to more progressive government and attitude towards their citizens. None of that happened, and it’s probably worse now than in the 70s when Nixon gave it a shot. It was a complete failure.

Re: Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion

#110

Post by EasyMark »

worstspotgain wrote: post #49
CoastalCoder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The key to peace is the general understanding that the two countries will be reunited at some unspecified future point. One side surrendering usually is a key to peace. But realistically, can you imagine the CCP submitting to the will of Taiwanese voters?

IMO, Taiwan has proven that democracy can eventually work in China too. The question is: how do they get there? And more importantly: why are we antagonizing and warmongering instead of taking actions that further that goal?

It’s China who is bullying Taiwan. Taiwan could never have dealings with China ever again and be fine.
Post reply on HN