The ultimate problem we ran into in South Vietnam, was that the people there
were never as quite as in it to win it as we were. Are the Taiwanese more
dedicated to remaining free? I’m not convinced of it.
I don’t want to see Taiwan taken by force. In all honesty I don’t want them
being absorbed into China at all. One only has to look at Hong Kong to see
why. The treatment of the people of Shanghai is another sterling example.
Then you have to look at what is taking place in the greater western Pacific
region.
The Solomon Islands have decided being in the China sphere of influence is
good. Are other nations going to follow suit?
Is Taiwan worth chancing the loss of 1-3 carriers over?
If we go into this, we will have to humiliate China, because it plans on replacing
us. We will have to defang it. At this point, I don’t see that being possible short
of a nuclear exchange.
Our trade has financed China’s rise to enough of a military power to give us a
major headache.
In the early 90s I predicted our trade with China would result in one thing. Our
youth would have to die as a result.
The South Vietnamese government was dominated by Catholics in a country whose population was overwhelmingly Buddhist.
They’ve been at drawn daggers with the PRC since 1948. That suggests that they are in it to win it. But if they should fall to China regardless of their dedication to such abstractions as “freedom,” America is screwed. It will take the microchip factories currently under construction in the US years to go on-line. In the interim, 80% of all chips are made in Taiwan, and 100% of sophisticated electronics use those chips. If Taiwan falls under China’s hegemony, America will be eclipsed, and whatever is done a few years down the line to alleviate the chip shortage will be too little, too late. Yearn to breath free later. Right now, yearn to keep functioning tech.