What if China Invades Taiwan?

[TerryMathews]

Thanks to Harry Truman, it is the law of this country that we will defend Taiwan. Of course, I believe that was an Executive Order so a sitting President could resciend it...

I don't think losing Taiwan would do much to our economy; that said, I believe we should defend them. We promised that we would, and character should count for something.

 

[imported_smilingcrow]

Originally posted by: brigden
The current US administration would claim no WMD were found and thus there would be no need for invasion.

Unless they were using satellites with thermal imaging sensors that detected extreme temperatures, that couldn?t be explained? Post invasion, on the ground ?intelligence? would show that these heat sources were merely early samples of dual core Prescotts.

WMD = Political FUD

 

[booger711]

2nd us aircraft carrier for Asia-pacific?

 

[metalmania]

Most mainboards are made in China now. Those IT companies have huge investment in mainland China.

 

[compfreak999]

Originally posted by: metalmania
Most mainboards are made in China now. Those IT companies have huge investment in mainland China.

ever heard of sweatshops?

 

[UpGrD]

Taiwan has more than 400,000 troops, nearly 400 modern jet fighter's, well trained modern navy.
Numbers wise china has the edge, but quality wise Taiwan is a far superior military. If the two contries shared a land boarder, china could overwhelm Taiwan, but China has very little capabilty to land enough troops to to do the job (they would need to land well over 1 million troops).
And there is no doubt that the US would defend Taiwan, but I do not think that Taiwan would need any more than resupply and tactical support.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: digitalsm
Its a lot more complicated. Tawain(Formosa) was settled in the late 1500s by Spain. Dutch kicked them out in the early 1600s. A general from the Ming Dynasty decided he wanted to own Formosa so he too his 25,000 troops and took it over, declaring him King of Taywan. He died four months later.

The Ching Dynasty later conquered Taywan. In 1895 Taiwan declared its self a republic to try and ward off the japanese.

Later on in 1895 the Japanese took over Taiwan. After WW II the Republic of China sent troops to expel the Japanese. They decided, hey we like Taiwan, we will now rule Taiwan. The chinese massacred thousands of taiwanese.

Uh oh here comes 1949 and the communist take over of China. The former govt of the Republic of China and over 1 million people fled to Taiwan.

Bottom line is. China past or present has never done anything for Taiwan, either defense wise or economics wise. Taiwan has been its own country in the past. IMHO Taiwan is CERTAINLY NOT part of China.

Also IMHO it was extremely foolish for the US to use Taiwan as a political bargining chip with China during the Vietnam war.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=52&threadid=1362032&highlight_key=y&keyword1=china

that thread may be useful to look at.

 

[OS]

if anything, I don't see why taiwan doesn't start a crash program to build a couple of nukes. It'd make for a pretty strong deterrent. 😛

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: OS
if anything, I don't see why taiwan doesn't start a crash program to build a couple of nukes. It'd make for a pretty strong deterrent. 😛

They have had the technical capacity for decades. Taiwan is currently subject to IAEA inspections, but it may have been possible to divert enough materials for some weapons.

 

[AcidicFury]

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: DaWhim
it is not gonna happen. maybe only within your fantasy.

with 60 billions trading with US, china won't do that.

Perhaps they're counting on the same thing deterring us from defending Taiwan. If it's an unprovoked attack, I imagine the UN would have to defend Taiwan... and as a member of the UN, the US ought to follow their lead.

Uh China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. They have a veto.

No they don't. Text

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: OS
if anything, I don't see why taiwan doesn't start a crash program to build a couple of nukes. It'd make for a pretty strong deterrent. 😛

They have had the technical capacity for decades. Taiwan is currently subject to IAEA inspections, but it may have been possible to divert enough materials for some weapons.

yeah I was just reading up on this, it seems like it would be small beans for taiwan to have a black nuclear program. Then if China invades, they erase Bejing and a couple other chinese cities from the map.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: cchen


I doubt it.... Bush has publicly stated that the US will do whatever it takes to protect Taiwan. Of course his words alone don't mean anything, but at least he is aware of the situation.

BTW, I doubt the US would let China take Taiwan. Taiwan is a growing democracy, and letting a communist country take it over doesn't seem to fit with the ideals of American democracy...

Bush said he will back up Taiwan if invaded by China in his first couple months of presidency, then he later switched positions when he visited China during APEC to something like"I support the one China policy through peaceful reunification".

Politicians are liars, they say whatever is in the national interest at the moment. I'll tell you what they really want, they dont want a peaceful unification, cuz that means a even more powerful China. They don't want an all out war either, because that means U.S. if facing a dillemma fighting the largest military in the world, not only that, huge sums of $$$ will be lost either in war or economic sanctions.

What the politicians say really means nothing, it all comes down to dollars and cents at last. With large U.S. companies all invested in China, no way in hell they are gonna goto war in China, the most U.S. will do is verbally condemn China and give $$$ or weapons aid to Taiwan.

Thus, the U.S. politicians just sees this current stalemate as a perfect fit for their agenda.

 

[alphatarget1]

China has been threatening Taiwan for quite some time now, nothing new.

I highly doubt Taiwan will declare independence, either. They're just talking smack, nothing to worry about IMO.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: cchen


I doubt it.... Bush has publicly stated that the US will do whatever it takes to protect Taiwan. Of course his words alone don't mean anything, but at least he is aware of the situation.

BTW, I doubt the US would let China take Taiwan. Taiwan is a growing democracy, and letting a communist country take it over doesn't seem to fit with the ideals of American democracy...

Bush said he will back up Taiwan if invaded by China in his first couple months of presidency, then he later switched positions when he visited China during APEC to something like"I support the one China policy through peaceful reunification".

Politicians are liars, they say whatever is in the national interest at the moment. I'll tell you what they really want, they dont want a peaceful unification, cuz that means a even more powerful China. They don't want an all out war either, because that means U.S. if facing a dillemma fighting the largest military in the world, not only that, huge sums of $$$ will be lost either in war or economic sanctions.

What the politicians say really means nothing, it all comes down to dollars and cents at last. With large U.S. companies all invested in China, no way in hell they are gonna goto war in China, the most U.S. will do is verbally condemn China and give $$$ or weapons aid to Taiwan.

Thus, the U.S. politicians just sees this current stalemate as a perfect fit for their agenda.

Um, if he said "I support the one China policy through peaceful reunification" wouldn't that mean that the US would not look kindly on a military option?

You would be wong if you thought that subtlety was lost on the PRC.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: AcidicFury

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: DaWhim
it is not gonna happen. maybe only within your fantasy.

with 60 billions trading with US, china won't do that.

Perhaps they're counting on the same thing deterring us from defending Taiwan. If it's an unprovoked attack, I imagine the UN would have to defend Taiwan... and as a member of the UN, the US ought to follow their lead.

Uh China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. They have a veto.

No they don't. Text

Read your own link.

 

[FrustratedUser]

China is not that dumb. They still $uck anyway. I wish the world stopped brown-nosing China.
But they are to big of a market for that to happen.

 

[Mo0o]

China and Taiwan will probably never attack each other. That being said, China has a policy that it will never be the first to use nukes, so i dont think that is a big fear.

 

[luvya]

The truth lies in my sig 😉

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: luvya
The truth lies in my sig 😉

It all depends on how you view it? For some it could be saying Californian =/= American

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: AcidicFury

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: DaWhim
it is not gonna happen. maybe only within your fantasy.

with 60 billions trading with US, china won't do that.

Perhaps they're counting on the same thing deterring us from defending Taiwan. If it's an unprovoked attack, I imagine the UN would have to defend Taiwan... and as a member of the UN, the US ought to follow their lead.

Uh China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. They have a veto.

No they don't. Text

Ummm yes they do.

US, UK, France, China, and Russia all have VETO POWER.

Heck Russia and China have been threatening to use their veto power on any Sudan measure they dont agree with.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: K1052

Um, if he said "I support the one China policy through peaceful reunification" wouldn't that mean that the US would not look kindly on a military option?

You would be wong if you thought that subtlety was lost on the PRC.

The two comments does not directly contradict with each other on the surface, but it does in actuality.
Let's say Taiwan declares independence, and China invades. Who will the U.S. support? They did say they would like a peaceful reunification, but by declaring independence first, Taiwan is obviously going the wrong direction of what the U.S. has intended for them, and they sure as hell arent going through a peaceful reunification if they declare independence. The U.S. could just as easily do nothing and stand by this statement as to going to war with China with the other statement of "supporting Taiwan in case of attack"


I'm just trying to show you that take everything that Bush says with a grain of salt. Bush is a puppet held by coporates, he'll do whatever makes the most sense for the big coporates, which we all know are heavily invested in China.

 

[kage69]

The Communists never ruled Taiwan. They need to get over it and quit the whole 'renegade province' act.

 

[Chaotic42]

Oooh, I love theoretical military actions.

Personally I think it would be pretty open and shut. Taiwan doesn't have the capability to defend itself against a full out invasion by China.

If I had to guess, China wouldn't go right across the Taiwan straight. That's fairly shallow water and pretty obvious.

I guess if I were China using the information that we actually have access to, I'd launch a diversionary attack on Kao-hsiung. I'd make it obvious. While I was doing that I'd activate whatever sleepers I have along the western seaboard, and drop some special forces in along the western edge of the mountain range. They'd capture lines of communication and whatever important facilites.

Assuming this all goes according to plan, I'd hit Taipei from the north-east. I'd land at Chi-lung and have a secondary force land at Tan-shui.

The operative words here would be crushing force.

As the main force takes Taipei, the diversionary force and secondary force would fight towards each other, meeting near Chang-hua if all goes well.

Once the Taiwanese threat had been neutralized, I'd establish a puppet government and give it "freedoms" similar to Hong Kong. I'd take advantage of its tech ability. Of course, I'd bring the engineers back to the mainland and establish enormous tech labs.

Edit: I meant western, not eastern.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Oooh, I love theoretical military actions.

Personally I think it would be pretty open and shut. Taiwan doesn't have the capability to defend itself against a full out invasion by China.

If I had to guess, China wouldn't go right across the Taiwan straight. That's fairly shallow water and pretty obvious.

I guess if I were China using the information that we actually have access to, I'd launch a diversionary attack on Kao-hsiung. I'd make it obvious. While I was doing that I'd activate whatever sleepers I have along the eastern seaboard, and drop some special forces in along the eastern edge of the mountain range. They'd capture lines of communication and whatever important facilites.

Assuming this all goes according to plan, I'd hit Taipei from the north-east. I'd land at Chi-lung and have a secondary force land at Tan-shui.

The operative words here would be crushing force.

As the main force takes Taipei, the diversionary force and secondary force would fight towards each other, meeting near Chang-hua if all goes well.

Once the Taiwanese threat had been neutralized, I'd establish a puppet government and give it "freedoms" similar to Hong Kong. I'd take advantage of its tech ability. Of course, I'd bring the engineers back to the mainland and establish enormous tech labs.

Who have you been talking to! THat was our whole plan!

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: K1052

Um, if he said "I support the one China policy through peaceful reunification" wouldn't that mean that the US would not look kindly on a military option?

You would be wong if you thought that subtlety was lost on the PRC.

The two comments does not directly contradict with each other on the surface, but it does in actuality.
Let's say Taiwan declares independence, and China invades. Who will the U.S. support? They did say they would like a peaceful reunification, but by declaring independence first, Taiwan is obviously going the wrong direction of what the U.S. has intended for them, and they sure as hell arent going through a peaceful reunification if they declare independence. The U.S. could just as easily do nothing and stand by this statement as to going to war with China with the other statement of "supporting Taiwan in case of attack"


I'm just trying to show you that take everything that Bush says with a grain of salt. Bush is a puppet held by coporates, he'll do whatever makes the most sense for the big coporates, which we all know are heavily invested in China.

It is rather unlikely that Taiwan will would do that. They are not about to increase tensions, forcing the US's hand in the matter would not be productive.

I higly doubt the US would stand idly by while China took over Taiwan. There are far reaching implications if we just let them take it.