My son has another year of high school. He was just looking online about military options here.
According to one source he read…because he has dual citizenship he wouldn’t qualify for officer academy.
Can anyone confirm that?
I don’t know. But I would think if you were serving in the military, especially as officers, they may look down on dual citizenship. To say nothing of acquiring additional citizenship after you retire…
Just did a quick search and U.S. officers also can’t have dual citizenship.
Guess it makes sense you don’t want someone who could potentially become a general or admiral holding another passport.
Oh well, guess he’ll just do his 4 weeks or whatever it is now.
Yeah, my son faced the same. Officers cannot have dual citizenship; lower ranks OK.
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Yeah, but they don’t want to get into a war with China in the first place. And cutting off the flow to China would cost the West as well as well- that won’t happen.
Why would they ? To me it seems more about US protecting it’s own interests i.e being the top gun. If us gives away to China why would other countries bow down to it ? They can only be one top gun at a time.
I disagree with this. Unless you’re saying all the flights will be off a carrier then possible. But carriers can be easily targeted by missiles that are being fired off the coast. Flying from Hawaii would be too much fuel and yeah pilots get tired. You want your pilots fresh for aerial battles.
Loyalty of the people can only be tested at that very moment. if Chinese start dropping flyers saying with a PRC gvt they will be higher salaries etc, no need to fight ? how many locals will be willing to fight.
They also have a decent sized sub fleet
F*#@G@ the Chinese government.
It’s become quite apparent that the Chinese government’s promises aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
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if you’re aware with the Crimean saga you’ll see how that can easily happen without the PRC promising anything. In Crimea, if they had remained as part of Ukraine wages would be low. But because they chose to be or were annexed by russia wages increased by a good amount. Mainland China is already Taiwan’s biggest trading partner. Avoiding war will be beneficial to both sides. Then ethnical ties - Han Chinese + language makes annexation even easier. No need to fire a bullet for that. Just force Taiwanese gvt to do a referendum i.e Taiwanese democracy will do them in. Without democracy no referendum. @Marco
Seems like he’s just parroting the daily talk sheets he’s been given. About the only thing going for the Chinese military right now is their aggressive behaviour. And that can only last so long. It will also be costing the Chinese a fortune for all these incursion flights and South China Sea sorties. It seems they don’t really know all that much about Taiwan. It will come down to a war of attrition. And who knows how long the Chinese conscripts will want to keep fighting after hearing of massive casualties day after day. The guy doesn’t even understand how many bases the US have within relative ease of flight reachability to Taiwan. China would have to attack 4 or 5 countries all in sync with the aim of deterring a US response and that still doesn’t include naval capabilities.
Mainland China has been doing this for decades. The problem with this approach is it’s only higher wages for a select few. And most Taiwanese now know this. Then there’s the Chinese led tourism strategy. That all blew up when Xi Jinping decided to restrict numbers of Mainland tourists after Tsai Ing Wen won the Presidency. Only about 20% of the Taiwan population have what you would call direct connections to the Mainland. The majority of Mainland immigrants over the last 350 years have heralded from the Fujian Province. There is also a substantial indigenous population of Taiwan. To put it quite simply you won’t learn much from visiting Pingxi on a tour bus or scratching your Chinese name on Queens Head rock and spending the rest of the time zipping in and out of karaoke bars within Taipei or Khaosiung.
Umm the USA have bases within the region. How can you not know this?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadena_Air_Base#:~:text=Kadena%20Air%20Base%20(嘉手納飛行場,“Keystone%20of%20the%20Pacific”.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadena_Air_Base#:~:text=Kadena%20Air%20Base%20(嘉手納飛行場,“Keystone%20of%20the%20Pacific”.)
Which is 390 miles away. The F16 can fly maximum speed of 1500mph. Well they can fly faster than that but that’s recommended for least amount of maintenance. So just to use your example USAF planes would be overhead in Taipei in roughly 30 minutes from time of call out. Just under 20 minutes from takeoff.
The US also have 15 military bases in South Korea which is about a 30 minute flight at Mach 2 from takeoff.
Of course there’s Guam and Germany to throw into the mix. The US would insist Nato become involved. That would mean huge trade sanctions against China which would cripple China’s economy and allow the US to send heavy bombers from Germany straight over the top of China. Guam also houses heavy bombers and refueling fleet.
Meanwhile the PLAAF have approximately 600 modern aircraft whereas the USAF have over 5000 and the US Navy have over 3700.
As it stands right now China has no chance and they are increasingly pushing their limits on acceptable behaviour regarding the Taiwan Relations Act.
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If you knew anything about the Crimea, you would know it is a majority Russian people.
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Also, the soldiers family. Once the son dies who is going to look after the parents. What is encouraging the public to witness the deaths of their sons. That will be an issue China needs to overcome.
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It would be an issue for American families to overcome too,wondering why their sons are dying in Asia again. American pilots captured and paraded on TV will be seen all over the world. Carriers listing and aflame would be too. Then the economy being hit. It would be a test for all sides.
Yes, but we have seen the resolve of the American people. They will support their hero’s. Also, mom and dad have more than one child.
The one child policy is an issue for China. An issue with so much complexity it’s hard to understand the full ramifications.
Guns and bullets make the U.S. economy go 'round.
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So… AB all the way out to the ~distance of its combat radius? Doesn’t seem like a great idea.
Refuel in the air. Easy cheap and the USA have air refueling fleets, Okinawa.
Also, it’s likely that Japan would allow USA to use their bases for staging.
Chinas recent posturing has hemmed them in more.