Earlier this month, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Doug Wickert summoned nearby civic leaders to Edwards Air Force Base in California to warn them that if China attacks Taiwan in the coming years, they should be prepared for their immediate region to suffer potentially massive disruption from the very start.
In a remarkable briefing shared by the base on social media and promoted in a press release, Wickert - one of America’s most experienced test pilots now commanding the 412th Test Wing - outlined China’s rapid military growth and preparations to fight a major war.
Cutting-edge U.S. aircraft manufactured in California’s nearby “Aerospace Valley”, particularly the B-21 “Raider” now replacing the 1990s B-2 stealth bomber, were key to keeping Beijing deterred, he said. However, if deterrence failed that meant China’s would likely strike the U.S. including nearby Northrop Grumman factories where those planes were built.
Still seems fairly unlikely that China would go to war over Taiwan. It wouldn’t be that easy, and their economy is better for having Taiwan as a major trading partner.
Taiwan acts as a political firewall too, with lots of Chinese companies having their front facing customer service there.
So many of the Taiwanese firms have massive operations in China too. Foxconn, Pegatron to name a couple.
Given how democracy in capitalism is going around the world, it’s not inconceivable for Taiwan’s public opinion to shift in a decade or two if the current trends stay in place. Perhaps sooner if the US collapses.
What’s more Taiwan keeping “The Republic of China” as their official name, and allowing the Chinese National party (KMT) to still operate there is kind of asking for trouble.
If you want to be your own nation they needed to make that clearer about 30 year ago rather than playing these stupid games with names and parties.
As I understand it they’re basically just avoiding doing anything that might destabilise the status quo. Changing the country’s name to something else is saying “we are actually a separate country from China” as opposed to being in a frozen war where both sides theoretically claim to be the same country. The ambiguity lets them be de facto independent and lets the PR of China say “it’s de jure ours” without either side actually going to war about it at the moment, so the ambiguity stays
A large portion of their population still identifies as Chinese, so in a democracy you have to represent that.
Doesn’t have to be expressed via the KMT though. That was the party that ruled Taiwan as a military dictatorship for 25 years after all.
At the very least they should change the country’s official name to something that isn’t “The Republic Of China”. Leaving that as the official name just feels like trolling.
I just don’t think I’d fight for in a “We’re the real China, no, We’re the real China!” based war. If so many Taiwanese identify as Chinese it seems like something The West should stay out of. An extension of their civil war.
Like imagine if the Confederate States fled to Hawaii and claimed to be the real America… And the world took their side and swore to protect the “Confederate States of America” on Hawaii…
Shit wouldn’t make sense. You’d be like “WTF world? What’s up with that?”
More like the Union lost and fled to Hawaii. The ROC was the government prior to China’s civil war.
Oh, did The Union come close to having a brutal military dictatorship after the civil war like Taiwan had? Why would you put The Union as being closer to Chiang Kai-Shek? Were they the more Capitalistic ones?
No, because the Union utterly demolished the Confederates.
We can only guess whether the union would have become and remained a military dictatorship for 25 years if they had lost and fled to Hawai. That’s speculation.
After all, the ROC wasn’t a military dictatorship prior to the civil war either.
I think they were… They did a bunch of massacres and political repression didn’t they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre
Wasn’t that part of the betrayal that started China’s civil war? Says there they killed hundreds of thousands of Communist supporters and unionists, turned women into prostitutes… And that KMT party members denounced Chiang Kai Shek (who became leader of the RoC dictatorship) to Sun-Yat Sen, the pro-democracy candidate.
Pretty sure the RoC factions of the KMT sucked pretty bad… Then later the communists sucked less than them.
The violent Chinese nationalists weren’t the good guys. Western nations supported the subsequent military dictatorship in Taiwan because it was pro-Capitalist, anti-communist (and also anti-democracy).
It was only when Chiang Kai Shek died in the 1970s that the pro-democracy movement in Taiwan felt they could start properly without getting killed.
It’s the US pushing Taiwan for independence, and China will not allow it.