[quote]Is there a real danger of China using military force to reunify the mainland with Taiwan?
China will use force as a last resort. No country in the world tolerates the separation of [a] territory from the motherland. Taiwan is a part of China. In Taiwan, there are secessionist forces [that] would like to separate Taiwan from China. We will not tolerate [that].
[But] I hope that we can achieve a peaceful solution… [Laughs] Peaceful reunification of the motherland.
Which would happen with the consent of the Taiwanese people?
I believe so, because we’re not achieving it without their consent. [/quote]
One more question Mr. Wu…is your insanity fresh or does it run in the family?
I’d like to think this is just another in the long line of raving Chinese dignitaries needing an outlet for their excess testosterone, but I also fear that Taiwan can’t go on forever just maintaining the status quo. And I have a sinking feeling that as China continues to become more powerful, the collective West will be willing to sell Taiwan out in a heartbeat, rhetoric about freedom and self-determination be hanged…
Typical Communist Party hubdrub about how they are so innocent, if they are so innocent, put it to a vote of your people. Scary how he paints Taiwan as having certain secessionist forces that want to separate Taiwan from China. He seems one step away from labeling the Pan-Greens as terrorists or armed rebel forces, and notice how he says separate Taiwan from China as if they are currently part of the same country. Also, the last question about consent of the Taiwan people. Watch out for tricky worded Pan-Blue referendum, it might be a precursor to a Communist invasion.
yisha’ou: Taiwan is of strategic military interest to the United States and Japan. USA Military needs and dominance usually supercede economic gains for the US military.
By the way, the collective West minus the United States has already sold out Taiwan. Just look at the French pushing arms sales to China and other countries like Australia kissing China’s butt since they are buying so many raw materials. No one speaks out in support of Taiwan, except the US and to some extent Japan.
What does innocence have to do with a referrendum on PRC? Based on your logic if the majority of the people in the PRC took a democratic vote and the majority stated unification was the solution, then what argument would ROC have at that point to being a seperate state.
I think Taiwan Independence supporters should really think through this “Democracy in China” concept.
The interview is nothing new. Peaceful rise, intergrated economy, and anti-Taidu.
Usually. I’m just wondering how long it will last. Taiwan’s strategic importance is to limit the power of China in the region. If China shows signs of seriously calling that bluff, will the US be willing and able to go to war to keep China in its cage? I hope so, but I’m nervous.
In any event I certainly wouldn’t be upset if Taiwan made more of an effort to be a harder target. This pan-blue waffling-on-defense and trusting-China business has to stop.
All too true. And when Japan speaks up, China organizes protests to tell it to shut up. I took the deepening US-Japan ties as a very positive sign that the US is likely to stick to its line in the sand, but I’m getting increasingly nervous that China’s getting ready to cross it, and that’ll be… interesting, shall we say.
But maybe I’m being a worry-wart over nothing. They’ve been saber-rattling for years.
[quote=“yisha’ou”]If China shows signs of seriously calling that bluff, will the US be willing and able to go to war to keep China in its cage?[/quote]The US may have the luxury of some choice in this matter, but the Japanese do not. Since Japan is America’s best friend in the region, and one of the US’s most important trading partners, I hardly think that they are going to abandon them to China’s bullying.
It’s only a matter of time before the US declares China the enemy. The US needs an enemy to define itself, the Russians failed to live up to the task and the raghead terrorist is too ephemeral to really satisfy in this role. Whether they give Taiwan up or not really depends how long the US is going to keep fooling itself that China is going change it’s ways under the current policy of engagement. I’d rather see Taiwan with it’s own credible defense than depend on the Americans to wake up and smell the coffee in time. I have the bad feeling that Taiwan is the line in the sand, and that the US will only square off against China after they’ve taken it.
The U.S. only needs Taiwan to be able to hold out for two weeks, which is looking more and more unlikely as the LY refuses to pass the special arms procurement budget (hopefully Chairman Ma will change that). The US will not forsake Taiwan, because it will not give up its strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific. This would not be of benefit to the US, Japan, Australia, or any other number of nations that don’t want to see Chinese expansionism.
I am confident that the U.S. would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. I’m thinking, however, that it would probably not involve many ground forces (save, perhaps, for some special ops guys). Naval and air power would cut the Chinese invasion forces that were already on Taiwan off from their supply lines. That could be enough, coupled with US airstrikes and cruise missile strikes to cripple China’s energy supply (as has been mentioned before). Two aircraft carrier battlegroups, and support from Japanese F-15J Eagles for taking and maintaining air supremacy, and perhaps a couple of Japan’s AEGIS equipped Koga-class destroyers as well (with a Marine rapid deployment group standing on deck in case things don’t go according to plan).
Well, if the PLA is stupid enough to use nuclear weapons as that general recently said, they would find themselves on the receiving end of a nuclear response that will rain fire upon the “Middle Kingdom” as none could ever possibly imagine. There would be no holding back at that point, and the PLA generals and CCP leaders would barely have time to understand what “shock and awe” really means before they were evaporated by a nuclear barrage that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem like … well, I dunno … but it wouldn’t be pretty …
Well, if the PLA is stupid enough to use nuclear weapons as that general recently said, they would find themselves on the receiving end of a nuclear response that will rain fire upon the “Middle Kingdom” as none could ever possibly imagine. There would be no holding back at that point, and the PLA generals and CCP leaders would barely have time to understand what “shock and awe” really means before they were evaporated by a nuclear barrage that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem like … well, I dunno … but it wouldn’t be pretty …[/quote]
I doubt it would rain fire on them. Ever hear of a tactical nuke? Pinpoint target hits would spare most of the population…THAT’s when the choas would begin…so much for the Middle Kingdom…knocked back 1000 years.
They know this, and the US knows this, and they know that the US knows this, and the US knows that they know they know this…
There will be no Chinese nukes IMHO…the leaders are far to corrupt to kill the golden goose…ie, their own bloated country…
Scary how he paints Taiwan as having certain secessionist forces that want to separate Taiwan from China. He seems one step away from labeling the Pan-Greens as terrorists or armed rebel forces, and notice how he says separate Taiwan from China as if they are currently part of the same country. Also, the last question about consent of the Taiwan people. Watch out for tricky worded Pan-Blue referendum, it might be a precursor to a Communist invasion.
