[af_vet_rr]

The time is sure right for China to retake Taiwan. USA (Obama) won’t do anything about it. What are we going to do? Sanctions? Make Chinese goods illegal in the US? Quit paying our debt that we barrow the principle to repay?

Whether we like it or not, China and America's economies are very much intertwined, and we are not going to war with them, nor are they going to war with us, because it would destroy both of our economies, although we are in a better environment to survive.

Taiwan is a smoke screen, same with the islands near Japan. China will poke around, especially with Vietnam and the Philippines, to see if they can get some concessions and/or put on a show for the folks back on, but at the end of the day, there is very little that is worth China destroying their economy and putting tens of millions and hundreds of millions of Chinese out of jobs and on the streets. Taiwan and some islands near Japan don't fall into that category.

Had a friend who is a missionary (a businessman as far as the Chinese government is concerned), and who came back recently from China, and he talked about all of the problems China is suffering internally. We all saw the problems China has had in Hong Kong and elsewhere, but we are not seeing is the strife that's occurring within China.

He saw situations where the Chinese government had very little control in some of the outer areas, and he even saw individuals and small groups stirring up problems in the larger cities/areas closer to Beijing. If China goes to war with us, then their factories will shut down and tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of Chinese will be angry and on the streets, and China does not have the capability to shut down protests on that kind of scale. Sure, those workers might blame America, but they will take it out on the Chinese government.

Communist countries don't have a good track record when it comes to millions of pissed off, out-of-work and hungry peasants taking to the streets.

[Tenacious 1]

You speak of war with China? If I am reading your sentiments correctly, you speak specifically of direct attacks on Chinese land that would shut down factories.

You are missing the point and I believe underestimate the Chinese, as were the Russians under estimated.
If China has calculated correctly, Taiwan could be taken with barely a shot fired, mostly from the inside but with a little military might as well.

[redgolum]

Whether we like it or not, China and America's economies are very much intertwined, and we are not going to war with them, nor are they going to war with us, because it would destroy both of our economies, although we are in a better environment to survive

Read history. One trade partner invading another is so common it is often a preamble to war, not an impediment. Germany's biggest trade partner was the USSR, right till the tanks rolled in.