Frankly the general US population doesn’t care about any of the “One-China” mantras and especially when they’re simultaneously told by the same diplomats or “China expert” that “Strategic Ambiguity” is also paramount. The China expert keep talking among themselves about the technicalities of diplomatic jargons, but the thing is, US and Japanese voters do not like China now.
It’s as if the voters already told their politicians that “actually you know what, I really don’t give an F about China.” You can’t fix that problem with Taiwan either. It’s structural and predetermined because of the very nature of this relationship - a Communist Regime determined to subvert post ww2 world order.
Their approach is just so 19th century colonial. This isn’t like a hundred years ago when you could subjugate the local population. This is the time of insurgences… USA couldn’t subjugate Iraq. Russia can’t subjugate Ukraine. If China tried to occupy Taiwan, they wouldn’t have peace for a hundred years or at least until there was no longer living memory of a free Taiwan.
There is some truth in your question but if you consider Seoul is 23 km away from DMZ. Wouldn’t you say it’s more dangerous in South Korea? Wouldn’t ww3 break out in Korea? When is North Korea going to attack? When are they going to fire missiles and sink another ship, or shoot down a civilian aircraft? (They did all of those)
If your answer is yes, then let me ask who is propping up North Korea?
if your answer is no, then let me ask why put 20,000 US boots on the ground there? Is US going to occupy North Korea? Or is South Korea incapable of defending itself? What’s the point of stationing 20,000 on a fully capable country 10, 20 times the power of North Korea?
No. I lived in Seoul for 6 years. We had some tense times, but nothing like this. North Korea lacks the capability to win a war with South Korea and they know this. There are plenty in China who believe the PLA could win a war against Taiwan, and even the USA.
Tough to say, China has done this successfully in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. And all if China, in a way. Taiwanese people present a different situation , no doubt, but the CCP has a lot of practice and a strong track record with this kind of thing.
There is still the question of how people here would react, and I dont have a strong opinion on this, but it seems entirely possible there would be a collecctive shrug if the initial occupation wasnt overly chaotic and with too many changes…
You sound like my sister. The DPP is always pushing for formal Independence, but now when they have the perfect opportunity to stand up to Chinese aggression and do it, they puss out and claim launching missiles over Taipei is fine because they crossed the upper atmosphere.