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The Asian countries know this and they all take the USA very very seriously. It's the idiotic MSM punditry, the same group of idiots who told us that Trump would never even be nominated who would have some in the USA think otherwise. I would have thought some of these people would have learned their lesson by not but this topic, I guess, proves otherwise.
Asia is not going to fight the U.S. with military force. China in particular is going to check our influence by forging stronger alliances within Asia-Pacific, which represents on the order of 30% of international gross domestic product. The countries of Asia-Pacific are already turning to China as it's the largest market they can trade with (which is why TPP is pointless without U.S. participation). The result will be a richer, stronger China that is going to present even stiffer competition to the U.S. in the international marketplace.
We've been selling weapons to the Taiwanese for decades. Most people are OK with that because the idea is to provide enough assistance to Taiwan where they can deter a Chinese invasion. At the same time, we don't want to go too far where it appears our policy position encourages an independent and sovereign Taiwan. Unlike Trumpworld where everything is separated into nice, neat binaries for the simple of mind to understand, diplomacy is a delicate balancing act where seemingly hypocritical and contradictory actions occur all of the time.
So if we have been selling weapons to Taiwan for decades and it's no big deal, Why did they react with outrage and threats of sanctions when Obama did it last year?
Iv'e been listing to you Liberals claim that WW3 is just around the corner during every Republican administration since Reagan took office.
You have an illness called Trump derangement syndrome, find your safespace and some play doh, its gonna be alright.
so maybe the guy who has 0 foreign policy experience outside of golf courses who takes unsecured calls on his cell with world leaders and who hasn't taken state dept briefings on said calls should maybe ask for help before these calls instead of holding pep rallies after he already won?? Maybe they talked about renegotiating trade deals??
I think he's just following Obama's lead. Obama's been provoking Russia for years.
So glad someone has some balls!!!
What a welcome change!!!
That's how you want the next president coming out the gate? With a direct slap in the face to the largest, most populated, most powerful nation on the planet besides us?
Have you gone completely mad? I mean down in the dirt, senile, dementia, MAD?
You do realize that China can completely take over dominance in the Pacific rim if they so choose to do so and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.
That's what the TPP was all about. Mutual defense and economic unity with the other 11 nations and the USA, specifically excluding China. The TPP was actually the US and 11 other pacific rim nations showing balls against China. Not some tepid phone conversation with Taiwan that broke 40 years of US diplomatic, foreign policy.
Yeah, things don't work that way. If the US wants to be taken seriously in Asia, it needs to be willing to sacrifice thousands of its soldiers to keep up its end of its bargain in the Taiwan Relations Act. If the US refuses to help Taiwan, all of America's allies will abrogate its alliance with the US and NATO would also collapse. No one would ever trust the US when it comes to treaties. And no, the US cannot currently withdraw from its obligation to help Taiwan in case of a war with China since that would also lead to the same thing so the US is stuck with defending Taiwan.
I have to respectfully disagree with you here.
While China might saber-rattle and threaten, it knows that it is at 25 years behind the US in military technology, it has limited force projection abilities and that a war with the US potentially could mean a wider conflict with US allies including NATO.
Given that China's only true "ally" is North Korea (itself a nation which lack force projection capability beyond its own area) attacking Taiwan would be the fastest way for China's military to quickly grow much smaller than it is currently.
Although I don't have the ability to predict the future, I think it is pretty safe to assume that both countries (China and the U.S.) are interested in keeping the status quo. Taiwan (however lovely this place is) has no balls to all of sudden declare independence; they are not this stupid. China, as long as Taiwan does not all of sudden declare independence, will not invade the place. Everybody happy.
Taken seriously? Even with Obama's administration, I don't think any countries in the world really have the balls to attack the U.S. LOL
Now, we have (well, almost have) mad dog General Mattis Keep calm and be happy.
I actually have loved ones currently serving, I am not worried one bit. I think Taiwan should buy some weapons from us lol and keep the mouth shut about independence. Maintain the status quo is the best for everybody.
I cannot pronounce half the names on my block. The streets signs in one neighbor are Mandarin. We have a Chinese total immersion school. Also, a teacher from China lived with a very good friend for a year while she learned to teach English at our local High School. Two different family friends friend were in China for 6 months while they adopted a children. My son goes to China regularly for work. His BFF is American born Chinese, Harvard MBA. Between graduating and work, he and his wife went to China for a year to learn the language. They learned it so well, the major American buyer of Chinese made crap hired his wife for a bunch of money. They are currently living there. Have been for 3 years. He hates it so they will be back when they get another job making that kind of money.
Did not want to get not all that, but. Most posters on CD think if you are not on their team you just fell off a turnip truck.
I'm talking about Taiwanese people, not Chinese. Of course Chinese people would consider Taiwan to be a part of China, it would be more news-worthy if they didn't.
But if you think Taiwanese and Chinese are the same thing then I can't help you. You're just not getting my point.
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It's important to know that entire history to understand why Taiwan is such a sore spot for the Chinese. Taiwan represents a great humiliation to the Chinese people in the very same way the dispossession of Hong Kong represented a great humiliation for a century. So yes, any inkling that we may consider establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan triggers the utmost sensitivity in their leadership. They can abide weapons sales, but they can't abide interference in the reconciliation process between the Mainland and Taiwan. That's unforgivable.
It's the result of their decades-long political indoctrination. The reality is that China has lost PLENTY other lands over other countries, notably to Russia in the 50s (and in the late 1800s/early 1900s as well), yet they never complain once about these far larger secessions (we're talking about the size of Alaska here, whereas Taiwan is about as tiny as Maryland).
So if we have been selling weapons to Taiwan for decades and it's no big deal, Why did they react with outrage and threats of sanctions when Obama did it last year?
China has always protested weapons sales. It's not the first time they've protested weapons sales to Taiwan.
They've been opposing arms sales to Taiwan for a very long time. But recognition of diplomatic relations with Taiwan represents an escalation because that is the one thing China will not tolerate. Even though they don't like the weapons sales, they don't view such sales as precluding the possibility of a peaceful reconciliation with the Mainland. If the U.S. formally recognizes the ROC, however, then that reconciliation will likely never happen. It would be akin to China helping California secede from the United States, only worse.
So question. How much have you actually read about China? From the dispossession of Hong Kong during the Opium Wars to the Revolution to the Long March to the expulsion of the KMT to the Great Leap Forward and the Anti-Rightist campaigns to the Cultural Revolution to the Sino-Soviet split to the Gang of Four to the rise of Geng Biao?
It's important to know that entire history to understand why Taiwan is such a sore spot for the Chinese. Taiwan represents a great humiliation to the Chinese people in the very same way the dispossession of Hong Kong represented a great humiliation for a century. So yes, any inkling that we may consider establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan triggers the utmost sensitivity in their leadership. They can abide weapons sales, but they can't abide interference in the reconciliation process between the Mainland and Taiwan. That's unforgivable.
And this is not according "to the Left." If this election may have accomplished anything, it might be that arenas that were once considered entirely apolitical have now been turned into partisan pissing contests. That's why the creed has always been to keep politics out of U.S. foreign policy, and that has been true for a long time. We have been able to have foreign policy continuity from one administration to the next because it is largely governed by a bi-partisan coalition of highly-educated experts rather than soccer moms who couldn't find Seychelles on a map if their lives depended on it.
Your selective outrage is ridiculous due to its hypocritical partisan nature.
China point blank said that Obama's massive military sales to Taiwan ($1,800,000,000.00) was costing long term damage to US-Chinese relationships and I didn't hear anyone on the Alt-Left complain.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said its position on opposing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan was clear and consistent.
Such sales are "an interference in China's internal affairs, damage the peaceful development of ties across the Taiwan Strait and Sino-U.S. ties", he told reporters in Beijing.
"We urge the U.S. side to earnestly recognize the high sensitivity and serious harm of weapons sales to Taiwan."
Alt-Leftists didn't mind any of this:
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The new sales would come at a period of heightened tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea, where Washington has been critical of China's building of man-made islands to assert expansive territorial claims.
China was angered when the United States sent a guided-missile destroyer close to one of the islands in October and B-52 bombers nearby last month.
China got angry when Obama offered Taiwan extra privileges like not needing a VISA to travel to the US and consideration for the TPP trade deal. I heard crickets from the Alt-Left.
But........if Trump picks up a phone call placed by the democratically elected leader of Taiwan it is time for the Alt-Left to scream and throw feces everywhere that it is the start of WW3.
It's the result of their decades-long political indoctrination. The reality is that China has lost PLENTY other lands over other countries, notably to Russia in the 50s (and in the late 1800s/early 1900s as well), yet they never complain once about these far larger secessions (we're talking about the size of Alaska here, whereas Taiwan is about as tiny as Maryland).
It's not accurate to say "they never complain." China's approach to Outer Manchuria is pragmatic. It would be like Mexico asking for a part of the U.S. back. There's also the fact that China and the Soviet Union were both allied against the United States, so it didn't make any sense (and to a large degree still doesn't make any sense) to fight over that when they see the West as the larger threat.
Your selective outrage is ridiculous due to its hypocritical partisan nature.
It's not selective. If it were selective, then there would have been outrage when the Bush administration sold weapons to Taiwan.
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Always attracting attention, the annual decision on what weapons to offer Taiwan elicited even greater scrutiny this year because of strained relations between Washington and Beijing following the April 1 collision of a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter. After this year's arms package became public, Bush told The Washington Post that he will drop the annual process in favor of considering Taiwanese arms requests on an "as-needed basis," apparently hoping to lessen the spectacle surrounding the decision each year.
There was no "liberal outrage" because the U.S. has been selling weapons to Taiwan for a long time. What the U.S. doesn't *ever* do, however, is give the impression that it is OK with Taiwanese sovereignty.
Instead of digging up links, why don't you pick up George Wei's book on Sino-American-Taiwanese relations. It's a good read.
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