[Teacher317]

Even the most bloodthirsty communist would think twice about invading if they faced 2 million armed citizens.

You truly do not understand Chinese thinking, or the realities of China today.

2 million people is NOTHING to them. We have 4 cities bigger than 2 million. They have 61.

Anecdotally, in a casual conversation with a polite and demure little college girl during one of my trips to China, she simply noted that it would be worth losing 100,000,000 Chinese if it meant Reunification. One hundred million. That's more than the number of eeeeeevil white males in the US over age 17. ALL of them. And college kids there think nothing of sacrificing that number for this goal. Think on that for a while.

A well-armed island is no easy military target... but Taiwan only has 23 million people, total, for the entire country. China does not fear the losses needed to accomplish this goal. Hell, some welcome the population reduction.

[SauronOfMordor]

I note that the person expressing this opinion is a girl who would have no personal risk of being handed a rifle and told to help take the island.

[gnarledmaw]

And THATS what all the empty cities are for. Its not just incompetent planning or corrupt boondoggling to buoy the economy. The same reason they are building all of the unnecessary "transportation" vessels.

They are expecting to lose a bunch of both in the near future.

[gnarledmaw]

...and the reason they’ve been storing up so much food.