US congressional commission hears China may force Taiwan crisis in 2021

What country or combination of countries in the Middle East would welcome 100,000 Chinese troops?

This is a crazy prediction

Yes.

Taiwanese shipping vessel blocks the Suez Canal. Totally a coincidence.

“ China is quickly amassing weapons and systems to militarily overwhelm Taiwan, an action it could be poised to take within the next six years, the admiral chosen to be the next commander of US forces in the Pacific warned Tuesday.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/24/asia/indo-pacific-commander-aquilino-hearing-taiwan-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

Time to cut off China totally.

read something today (aussie paper, through flipboard) that predicted just after the 2022 olympics. maybe i’m naive but i can’t see a violent military invasion, maybe it is because i don’t want to!

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I would’ve thought during the height of the pandemic and lockdowns a year ago would’ve been their golden window.

If China wanted it would have done it long ago. China doesn’t need much weapons to fight Taiwan. Taiwanese armed forces are a joke. It’s defence always laid in the west. Now that the west has shown itself to be incapable in doing anything (Hello HK), it’s actually pretty easy for China.

But I suspect for some reason they don’t want to. They just want to keep up the rhetoric and keep Taiwan as is, as long as taiwan behaves. Which it does.

This a moment in time where governments are gathering insights from this situation.

The accidental Suez blocking is very important — regardless if its resolved today, tomorrow, or a week from now, it shows the potential of using Shipping Vessels to block critical shipping lanes and canals.

It shows to China that regardless of stability in the Middle East they can be easily and significantly impacted by an accidental blocking situation.

It’s not an “act of war” “oil embargo” if it’s just an accident - just like it wasn’t an act of war “production and exports shutdown” that China did since it was just in response to the virus (take the virus out of the equation and it’s a clear act of war retaliation for the trade war).

Lastly, while the world keeps looking at China’s growing navy and military might, it might be time to look at their already existing massive fleet of oil and cargo vessels - what could China potentially do with such a fleet?

China has no freaking clue how to take a contested island. It’s harder than you think.

They will need to take Kinmen first. They will need to as they need the staging area and deny Taiwan the post anyways to listen in on China. Plus they will need the experience to capture islands too.

So if Kinmen falls, we know what’s coming next.

But Western analysts will keep saying China will take over Taiwan within a few years so they can continue convincing Taiwanese generals to buy overpriced weapon systems from the US, or depend on the US for their national defense (instead of say being more self reliant on this front).

Not necessarily true. Taiwan’s geography has been its advantage and deterrent.

Not true. Partially yes. Geography plays a major role.

Hong Kong is totally different. They gave it to China in 1997 by adhering to the agreement they made. It was given in good faith.

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What should the west have done about HK?

Dude when your opponent doesn’t want to fight, it’s easier than you think. That’s the real attitude here. Keep up the charade, the big talk about shooting down a Chinese plane, etc. China doesn’t need to do old style “beachheads” and all of that. They could directly take over Taipei with minimal fighting, thru the threat of : if you retailiate, you’re finished.

I don’t think so. They have a lot of well trained forces ready to respond at any moment. They have good weapons systems. Definitely some issues in some parts such as the army on off shore islands.

What we want to look out for is a missile barrage and some kind of paratrooper landings. I don’t see any way they can get mass forces over easily.

“The Alaska talks between China and the US have repercussions for the Gulf and the Suez Canal” - March 22, 2021

Interesting comment from a few days ago:

It is no accident that the US and China chose Alaska for their meeting. The US state is at the end of the famed Northwest Passage which could well become a new maritime trade route for Chinese vessels to get into the North Atlantic and beyond. However, China’s Belt and Road Initiative also seeks to develop maritime links with the Middle East and Africa, and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean. None of this will be possible if Beijing does not acknowledge US geopolitical supremacy that extends to the Suez Canal and the Arabian Gulf, and it reaches some sort of agreement with Washington about this.

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I wonder. If Taiwan was consistently bragging about its armed forces, wouldn’t that give China the knowledge edge? It would be preferable for them to think that the army is a joke when internally it is not.

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Yes ready to respond. But not willing. IMHO.

I was looking at the talks in Alaska. I have to say both sides if looking from a purely selfish nationalistic perspective have a point. .I’m not saying that I agree with the treatment of uighurs somehow being equated to black lives matters or whatever…That’s ridiculous.

But just listening to the entrenched positions in that meeting and China’s strident claims that America is trying to keep it down…Not good.

Some not. I reckon most will though if push comes to shove. I see the air force and navy and coastguard doing their job. The army…Needs a serious review !

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How is Kinmen a better staging area for an invasion of Taiwan than anywhere else on the southeast coast of China?

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Yeah they just bomb kinmen and the offshore islands and skip them entirely.

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