US plan to defend Taiwan against China

That’s certainly ambiguous.

Meta-ambiguity

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Doesn’t get clearer than that. Go Joe.

Taiwanese sell chips for high prices, while Americans willing to defend Taiwan for free.
In Europe we pay high prices for natural gas, which comes free as natural resources.

But we print our currencies, so in the end we still get things for free or not?

Del

Has anyone termed the phrase “Strategic Senility” yet?

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Maybe Xi will go all out to match us.

:grimacing:

To be fair tho, whatever Taiwan may do – and in the same interview he said it’s up to Taiwan – any sort of invasion by China would be an “unprecedented attack”. The nuance could just be a real invasion vs some sort of small incident.

A story on someone inside AIT.

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The USA would have to drop the one China thing first though. Right now they are basically saying they accept China’s claim, at the same time selling weapons to Taiwan. If Taiwan made a choice that China didn’t like, the USA could backtrack because they broke the status quo. I personally wouldn’t count on the Yanks to charge in.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/19/biden-taiwan-staff-undercutting-messaging/

Summary

Biden can stop his staff from undercutting him in one of two ways. One way is to hold a news conference in which he definitively states that U.S. policy has changed. If he chooses this route, he should do so with all the relevant decision-makers behind him, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. That would put an end to the walk-backs and instill clarity about U.S. intentions.

Summary

The other way is to deploy U.S. military units to Taiwan itself. The United States does not station any military units in Taiwanese territory, and has fewer than 40 military personnel unofficially within the country. Biden could negotiate an agreement with the Taiwanese government to place U.S. Air Force, Army or Marine units there on a permanent basis. Chinese officials would howl, but they would know that any invasion would automatically entail a U.S. response, both from the troops on the island and elsewhere.

meh, US isn’t gonna station troops here until war breaks out, or something very short of war to warrant it. That’s just baiting China into war otherwise. Serves no purpose when we’ve already stated we’d (US) defend Taiwan. Walk-backs or not.

No, not really. It is strange to talk about “independence” (from who?) while not recognizing China’s claim, but it can’t be said that US recognizes it.

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No, they acknowledge it. Different.

They also acknowledge the status quo.

Same logic / excuse as Ukraine joining NATO would provoke a Russian attack.

Excuse or not, Russia would not have let Ukraine join NATO and would have likely moved up the invasion timeline. Bottomline is if they want to attack they will do it. China has blustered for decades. Time will tell if that is all it is

Try this logic:

Since Russia was going to invade regardless, Ukraine should have joined NATO, at least that would make Ukraine’s chance of winning the war higher.

Had Ukraine joined early, Russia would not have invaded.

Either way, Ukraine should have joined NATO.

Same logic applies to Taiwan.

The logic here is Ukraine would never had got far in their application before Russia invaded unless NATO expedited their application. Note in this invasion NATO wasn’t interested in doing that because big brother has nukes.

That’s why i hold the position that the USA won’t intervene and Taiwan needs to not rock the boat.
One just needs to look at HK to see what happens when boats get rocked.

Luckily it’s Congress that decides on war, not the President, so that will be both ambiguous and strategic. Personally, as a long time resident in Taiwan, I do not think US lives should be put on the line to save Taiwan. My main reason is, from personal experience here, that many Taiwanese themselves, including brood of emigrated from Taiwan on this forum, would abscond. The Ukraine model for providing help, together with the ostracization of China from the world economy should be a deterrent in theshort term, the next 2 years.