Not talking to Taiwan in order to appease China would be pathetic in my opinion. Maybe it's more complicated than that but I agree on that issue. A 1 trillion dollar infrastructure stimulus... snake oil salesman who do not understand economics, who do not understand history, and who are playing the populist game. The broken window fallacy is as strong today as ever, just in new clothing. What's worse is that same Republicans who opposed Obama's infrastructure spending are praising Trump's. They have abandoned their principles and have abandoned capitalism. I don't wake up to defend one candidate or one person, I defend conservatism.
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Not talking to Taiwan in order to appease China would be pathetic in my opinion. Maybe it's more complicated than that but I agree on that issue. A 1 trillion dollar infrastructure stimulus... snake oil salesman who do not understand economics, who do not understand history, and who are playing the populist game. The broken window fallacy is as strong today as ever, just in new clothing. What's worse is that same Republicans who opposed Obama's infrastructure spending are praising Trump's. They have abandoned their principles and have abandoned capitalism. I don't wake up to defend one candidate or one person, I defend conservatism.
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I was very happy about the Taiwanese president phone call. IMO Taiwan is an independent country and no communist bullies can change my opinion about that. Beijing can kiss my arse. I'd love nothing better than seeing the communist party leadership up in arms over the *gasp* idea that an American can call the Taiwanese president and have a chat.
Conventions be damned.
But I generally don't like the rest of the things Trump is doing...but his student loan proposal is pretty neat.
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I agree. It's stupid.
I was really shocked to support anything Trump did, but I guess his anti-China rhetoric finally paid off. It's a little personal for me since I have Taiwanese friends from an exchange experience I had over there. It's frustrating that the entire world has to play make believe to protect China's feelings. Taiwan is a fully independent nation with its own government. It is a democratically elected government, and a continuation of the original government of China before the civil war. The People's Republic of China has never governed the island of Taiwan.
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That is nice and all. But let's see what you will say when there is a conflict over this and you lose money.
The Chinese are not going to back down. This is more important to them than trades with the U.S.
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Trump laid bare the hypocrisy of US policy.... we can sell Taiwan tons of weapons and pledge to defend them militarily, but no one in the gov't can so much as make a dang phone call?
Maybe I'm just used to the freedoms of the United States...but if anyone tells me I can't talk to anyone because it hurts their feelings, too bad...I'm going to talk to them more just to spite you.
I have strong feelings about this that extend beyond money.
But I'm also a pragmatist, and so is Trump here. He knew what he was doing when he made the call, he's using Taiwan as a bargaining chip to extract concessions. The so-called "One China" policy will survive and the status quo will prevail, I mean... it's the art of the deal. Oh well. I'm enjoying the shake up because it just doesn't normally happen.
P.S. I've generally supported Obama throughout the years, but his lack of vigor against PROC aggression in the South China Sea left me with a sour taste. All we could do was run a few ships through there? C'mon now.
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...and hotel mattresses.
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It's a bit more complicated than this though, although I do agree with the sentiment that a democracy should be preserved for its own sake. The Taiwanese finally grew a pair about a decade ago (thanks mostly to KMT corruption) and made it from a titular democracy to an actual democracy. The Taiwanese have always been friendly, and they should be supported to their own self-determination. It's been long enough that while reunification was possible in the past, it's not possible now as they have culturally drifted apart from each other.
This is the complication, the US actually been at hot war with China before through UN action. Most of the WWII and Korean dual CIF awardees say that they would have fought the Nazis outnumbered and outgunned at Bastogne before going to the Chosin Reservoir again (and yes, all five that I talked to had the service jackets for CIB awards in both conflicts and combat decorations for both those actions). Even when we had the upper hand in the late war, the casualties that the Chinese were willing to absorb was something that gives the Americans pause.
For the Chinese part, the two other countries aside from the Americans that can frustrate them militarily (Japan and Vietnam) are manageable as neighbors, while the Americans are actually "crazy" enough in their eyes to fight a war without direct territorial gain involved and historically are willing to pay the weregild for their ideals and extract a larger blood price off the PLA. China can saber-rattle all they want when they know we won't respond, but Trump like Reagan's military instincts may just be violent enough that we would be engaged again which would destroy their economy before ours. Yes, China can trivially destroy the Taiwanese through even conventional missile bombardment, but they can't take over the country which are two separate problems. All the military plans involving invasion require that the Strait get crossed. That sort of amphibious landing would absolutely be extremely costly without that sort of military transport capacity and is considered impossible logistically with the current state of PLAN. Not to mention that the US or even the Russians may intervene. The Chinese cannot afford that sort of war, and that's why we've never taken the step of officially stationing forces there. Not just because it would aggravate the Chinese, but because those forces would be immediately destroyed without retaliation effect in any scenario where the area becomes belligerent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPLAN_5027
The war that I'd be worried if I were in the service is if the North Koreans get crazy enough to cross the DMZ into Seoul. 30 miles is short enough for even intermediate artillery to blast the city, and the USFK forces more or less being the welcome mat (as in they are basically assumed to be lost) until we could bring enough from Japan and AFP to reestablish a parameter (assuming neither side goes nuclear, which that scenario actually is controversial for planning as the North Koreans have a lot less to lose than we do with tactical nuke use). Although reinforcing that line would go a long way to reducing initial casualties, we are in this position with a shrinking military. Depending on our relations, you might as well play Russian Roulette than volunteer to be at the DMZ right now.
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Who doesn't like to take a shower in bed?
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LOL.
Yes, because it's *our* economy that's dependent on theirs.
Oh whatever will our almond farmers do?
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Not everything is about money. You seem to think it is.
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