Is China next?

I just herd on the news that China has pointed many surface to surface missiles at Taiwan. I dont know why China wants Taiwan so much. Do you know why?

For China, Taiwan is like a spot in the face for you. You want to remove it.

Taiwan is a "renegade province" to China, and this is exacerbated by the fact that Taiwan has yet to get international recognition of sovereignty from the UN.

Taiwan is, to be blunt, an embarrassment to the Chinese. It is also an economic boon to them to land it, as Taiwan has about 40% of the economy of the whole of China.

It is nothing new for China to start wargames in the vicinity of Taiwan... although it is entirely possible that the Chinese are waiting for the US to get involved in NK and ignore it as China walks over Taiwan. (The presence of US naval forces is the only thing that has kept China from a full fledged invasion of the island)

i thought it was because they make better egg rolls and they wanted to get rid of the competition???

ok maybe i'm wrong!

silly communists.

Oh interesting. Thanks for the info. While we are on the subject, if there was a war between the US and China who do think would win? I'm just curious.

Jetsetter, if Germany had fought Russia only in the 1940's who do you think would have won?

I think thats the kind of question youre asking.

Originally posted by jetsetter
Oh interesting. Thanks for the info. While we are on the subject, if there was a war between the US and China who do think would win? I'm just curious.

At the moment, China is too economically dependent on the US, so a war would be unlikely. My personal suspicion is because of this very reason, if NK continues to be beligerant, we will simply sit back and let the Chinese reign them in, as NK is making noise with nukes in Chinas backyard anyway.

Should a war occur between the US and China? Good question. We have the edge over China with our weapons technology, although China is currently on a very strong weapons production kick. Also China has the age old advantage of superior manpower, and is not at all averse to reverting to the old human wave attack (although this would be instantly negated with nukes and HAARP)

Some very good ideas there. You have some good points.

For one thing and one thing only. "Capital Reserves".


[Edited on 31-7-2003 by damefool]

Originally posted by ThePrankMonkey

ok maybe i'm wrong!

silly communists.

No no, you right. Communist are silly.

Found an article on this:
story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/us_china_military

WASHINGTON - China is boosting its missile stocks and military budget to prepare for what could be a quick and brutal showdown with Taiwan � and to prevent U.S. forces from getting in the way, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

-B.

I think Taiwan would kick china's ass....the Japs couldn't handle the predominantly Nationalist troops in China (communists helped too but come on...mostly in middle china...). Besides, Taiwan has something China doesn't, History.

Communist China can't lay claim to anything but the death they caused in their 20 year civil war, before 1949. Nationalist Taiwan, comes from the evolution to an attempt at democracy, and the over-throw of the Emperor.

Communists came even after that!

Taiwan has something to protect, freedom.

China has nothing. Its people are just brainwashed.

While China will probably win, I think they'll get over there and face a short lived but equally brutal version of our Vietnam

That is if we don't get involved, of course which we will.

if there was a war between the US and China who do think would win? I'm just curious.

Neither....we'd BOTH lose....especially if the confrontation then went nuclear.... But even without nukes, we'd lose due to higher prices, as no goods from China, they'd lose due to losing their biggest consumer market. Either nation would be slitting their own throats, so it isn't likely to happen.....

Originally posted by ThePrankMonkey
i thought it was because they make better egg rolls and they wanted to get rid of the competition???

ok maybe i'm wrong!

silly communists.

I thought it was because they found out the ancient chinese secret of so long ago like in those soap ads... lol...

A war between China and the US would be simply devastating. I hope it never happens.

Originally posted by FreeMason
I think Taiwan would kick china's ass....the Japs couldn't handle the predominantly Nationalist troops in China (communists helped too but come on...mostly in middle china...). Besides, Taiwan has something China doesn't, History.

Communist China can't lay claim to anything but the death they caused in their 20 year civil war, before 1949. Nationalist Taiwan, comes from the evolution to an attempt at democracy, and the over-throw of the Emperor.

Man, you must have some good mushrooms!!

The Chinese PLA fields almost 2 million troops (ground troops only), vs only 200,000 for the Taiwan ground army. This is a 16 to 1 advantage for the Chinese vs the Taiwanese military.

Ground Force (Army) (1.9 million men; 14,000 tanks; 14,500 artillery pieces & 453 helicopters)

www.chinatoday.com...

In the mid-1990s the Taiwan Army (TA) was a force of roughly 250,000, with a strategic focus on counter-landing operations. From 1997-2001, the ching shih reform initiative down-sized the entire military from approximately 450,000 to around 385,000 personnel, with the Taiwan Army taking a disproportionate reduction. Following the down-sizing, the TA was left with about 200,000 personnel organized into combined arms brigades.

www.globalsecurity.org...

When you stop to take into account the vast disparity in number of weapons, armor, and sheer manpower that China has over Taiwan, not to mention the obvious inclusion of nuclear weapons by China, which Taiwan simply does not possess, such an idea is sheer fantasy.

The ONLY reason that China has not yet taken down Taiwan is because of US presence in the area. Taiwan is considered a strategic ally to the US (although it is very interesting that we have yet to officially recognize Taiwans national sovereignty), and as such we have committed a large percentage of our Pacific naval assets to that region, specifically to prevent Chinese agression against Taiwan.

However, thanks to North Korea rearing its head in the region, there is a high likelihood that all of these naval assets could be redirected to the Korean peninsula in the event of major military conflict, which would leave Taiwan largely undefended. There is a train of thought that such an event is exactly what the Chinese are waiting for, and as soon as conflict with NK erupts, China will immediately invade Taiwan.

Would we do something about such an invasion, in those circumstances, if it were to occur? Most likely not. We simply do not have the resources in the area to cover both areas successfully, and we are still not prepared for a nuclear conflict with China simply to protect Taiwan.

Taiwan would be quickly written off as a casualty of war.

glad to see people taking such an interest in an issue much bigger than any iraqi war


here are some links from FAS on the issue

taiwan vs. normandy

taiwan crisis

but i think china would kick ass in an invasion, which is a bad thing, but also i don't think it'd happen for awhile b/c china needs little US kids to buy plastic toys

Originally posted by ThePrankMonkey
i thought it was because they make better egg rolls and they wanted to get rid of the competition???

ok maybe i'm wrong!

silly communists.

Hahahaha, maybe China needs more room to build toy factories and such?

Originally posted by jetsetter
I just herd on the news that China has pointed many surface to surface missiles at Taiwan. I dont know why China wants Taiwan so much. Do you know why?

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After reading the above and thinking, my answer is we will be fortunate if we are not next. Our nation has never been more vulnerable. Half of our Military is engaged over seas. Of the 500,000 left in America, 250,000 give or take are involved in top secret high tech crap of a WMD nature! We can have them because we are responsible, go figure, the remaining 250,000 are split between active and reserve. Clean your deer rifles and shotguns boy's.
China backed Korea 50 years ago they will back them now, it is a cultural thing. They can deal with NK later.
If the crap hits the fan do not fret we can Nuke them all out of existience while we play the HAARP.
What do you think all this underground drilling is about anyway?
At last count there were 126 humungus facilities underground in the US
Russis has a massive one in the Urals for over 40,000 people.
Pass me a flag to wave

tut

Visionaries are dead
This is why mankind
Has no head

No eyes
To see
What awaits thee

Have you forgoten
The apple rotten
Falls under the Tree