https://apnews.com/article/china-xi-trump-taiwan-independence-5d26e536240b881b06c26cd2be9ba632HONG KONG (AP) — China on Thursday stepped up its tough stance on Taiwan, an island democracy it deems its territory, warning the United States that Beijing and Washington will “have clashes and even conflicts” if the issue is not handled properly.China’s President Xi Jinping stressed during his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump that the “ Taiwan question ” is the most important issue in ties between Beijing and Washington, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.“‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” Xi told Trump, according to the statement.Xi’s stern tone reflected China’s growing pressure on the U.S., Taiwan’s largest unofficial ally. The U.S. is required by law to ensure Taiwan can defend itself but officially maintains a position of what has been called strategic ambiguity — leaving the question of whether it would get involved militarily if China decided to reclaim Taiwan by force.“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” Xi said, according to the ministry. Beijing has already ramped up a campaign over the past few years to lure away Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and increase military pressure on the island.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” but warned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.“U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
>Xi wants China to be unified with TaiwanChina and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when the Communist Party rose to power in Beijing following a civil war. Defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan, which later transitioned from martial law to multiparty democracy.China sees self-ruled Taiwan as its own breakaway province, to be retaken by force if necessary.Relations between Beijing and Taipei have been tense since Taiwan first elected Tsai Ing-wen as president in 2016. Her Democratic Progressive Party says Taiwan is functionally independent and its own sovereign state. China cut off most of its official dialogue with Taiwan’s government. In recent years, Beijing has sent warships and fighter jets closer toward the island on a nearly daily basis.The Chinese leader previously said China would “surely be reunified” with Taiwan, an island of about 23 million people.Beyond politics, Taiwan is a major manufacturer of AI servers, computer chips and precision instruments. The AI boom has propelled Taiwan ’s leading technology companies to record profits and revenues.Rhetoric on Taiwan reflects Chinese worriesAnalysts say Xi’s comments reflect China’s anxieties over a defense relationship that has grown closer between Taiwan and the U.S.“If China had secured any meaningful concession on Taiwan from Trump, it would have been reflected” in Beijing’s official readout of the leaders’ meeting, said William Yang, a senior analyst for Northeast Asia for International Crisis Group.“The lack of such mention and the relatively stern tone suggest Trump may not have budged on Taiwan in principle,” he said.In December, Trump’s team announced an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, the largest ever. Trump has also demanded that Taiwan increase defense spending.
Ma Chun-wei, an expert in China-Taiwan relations at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said China could also be worried the Trump administration has veered away from standard diplomatic language on Taiwan. The U.S. position has long been to acknowledge China’s position on Taiwan but maintain unofficial relations with the island.The latest version of the national security strategy from the Trump administration issued last December simply reads: “We will also maintain our longstanding declaratory policy on Taiwan, meaning that the United States does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”The U.S. usually has very standardized language on its relationship with Taiwan.“For Xi Jinping, he must show that the Taiwan issue is in China’s hands. He must demonstrate this image, or else he would be criticized,” Ma said. ___Wu reported from Bangkok. AP writer Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
Why is Trump so soft on China???
>>1514926Trump is a fucking communist
>>1514919>China ready to attack America over Taiwannever going to happen
>>1514919America is specifically committed to making sure the Chinks never get their hands on the chip fabs or Taiwan and never manage to become a polar power to rival the US. Its never going to happen, America would slag the entire island in nuclear fire first. China is either going to have to accept that or start WW3, those are their two options.
>>1514939America is significantly weakened by the Trump regime so they are in a very favorable position to make such a gamble.
>>1514919What's the reddit frog got to do with that?
>>1514919OP, the article needs to explain the one china policy better than all this complicated and partially inaccurate information about civil wars and transitions to democracy. China used to be Red China, people need to know the history.
>>1514955china used to belong to Mongolia, still does
>>1514940Trump demonstrated that the US is weak enough to lose to Iran. Why wouldn't China capitalize on this before a Democrat that could actually stop them gets back in power?
We wait.Decadent dying empire, U asS A invades Canada Greenland and Cuba and Mexico.european union declares war on U asS A Invaders. Russia and Ukraine unite to invade the European Union. We chyNaese "invite" all nations whose people have epicanthal eye folds to join us to.Israel nukes the Middle East, North Korea nukes Israel. India and Pakistan nuke each other. Australia joins the CCP, and the surviving members of the CPP move to Australia and set up a new government there
>>1514927We have always been at war with Oceania
>>1514933They could. What are we going to do? Who would help us at this point?
>>1514919https://i.postimg.cc/50GywFwT/trump-china.jpg
>>1514926>>1514980Trump has officially, within all reason, within all cope, within all metrics and goals laid out from his campaign: Lost the trade war.The tariffs did nothingGlobal Trade simply ate the costs and gave it to the consumer, who blamed trumpTrump tried trade restrictions of AI chips But Lil' Donny is still the sad little cuck in the relationship between S&P and the white house He also trued to pressure China over energy concerns. China doesn't care. China can buy our "free market" out from under us, and haveLiterally in all ways, the guy has lost, Trump is a natural born loser but not as much of a loser as all the little Miggers who genuinely thought he would put together something resembling a working plan and carry it out without TACO He may as well have just kneeled to Xi and kiss the Great wall of China like he does with Bibi for all the good this meeting did. It was Trump's unconditional surrender of the trade war and the announcement that he won't stop businesses from just raping Americans. As long as he gets his cut and his stock options.>>1514939It's funny he does this shit then literally unbans Nvidia selling chips to China. The whole reason he put trade restrictions on AI chips in the first place and torpedoed American media hegemony by letting AI companies steal it all was to "OwN ThE ChInESE DeY MuSt WiN Ove ChYNa" . Just to unban the chips literally 2 years after he started this retarded war. All of that was for nothing. He's the king of making the worst decisions imaginable.
>>1515040Good post
>>1514940US has a record high military enlistment and spending anon, trump is spending spending spend and going into debt but military is the one place he isn't cutting corners>>1514980US is a paper tiger>>1514981ahh yes invade ur allies who are effectively working for you at 70% of the wage you'd pay a national
>>1514981The orange dictator will invade Cuba and turn the whole country into Epstein island 2.0.
>>1515050> military is the one place he isn't cutting cornersI think it's the funniest shit: because the military is the one place where cutting corners would be necessary because all of our hardware is old junk.We see ~$120 DJI drones from TEMU flying at US soldiers in Syria and Kuwait and we immediately wave the white flag and completely table the idea of ever invading Iran. Good thing, too. We're currently having our ~$jillion dollar fleet too scared to even get within range of missile sites that are launching missiles that are only a few steps ahead of the V-1 from WW2. A few years ago we were keeping yemen at arm's length because of the threat of a few Silkworm batteries from the 70s possibly being hidden along the coastline. Proving that we've basically been unprepared to face a serious adversary for the past 50 years, instead choosing to keep our military on life support with big shows of force and endless cash investment that would make the world shit itself if it never moved on past the Cold War. Meanwhile Iran is playing this game of "I'm not touching you" in hopes of baiting America into coming in range of it's 2 trillion TEMUhawks and 1 billion drone swarms. When we should have spent all of this money and budget on modernizing the armed forces to deal with these threats decades ago. Nah let's spend it on Orange Man to give himself his own class of cruiser.
>>1514980The lesson is that superpowers like the US and China can no longer force their will upon regional powers like Iran and Taiwan by military means. Especially when those regional powers have been expecting your attack. Once again Americans are being stupid and thinking China will attack Taiwan because the US can’t defeat Iran, really. Yeah it isn’t logical
>>1515058The US military is massively overrated, always has been.
>>1515061The US Military IS very good at one specific thing: The ability to force project. That part is no joke. Within a few hours, US forces can be anywhere on Earth thanks to the network of bases and allies it's created. That alone has likely prevented hundreds of wars, as it does ensure that any action is met with an immediate counter.It's a good thing we don't get an orange orangutang in office who immediately disbands our NATO partnerships, gets our troops kicked out of multiple strategic bases, and then sells off multiple US assets to give to himself through fraudulent lawsuits LOL well, at least he won't come crawling and begging to them after he realizes he fucked up and neutered the US' ability to force project, HAHAHA
>>1515098Trump can’t leave NATO by executive order. What he can do is stupid shit like threatening Denmark, insulting the British, and calling Spain retards. He can make the US do what he was accusing others of doing, not pulling their weight, and maybe if someone is attacked and calls for article five the US will send thirty advisors or some bullshit. Trump doesn’t understand NATO, not what it is not how it works nothing, he shouldn’t be President it’s a joke but whatever. My Grandmother used to say we can’t trust the Americans because they voted an actor as President, she didn’t live to see Trump
>>1515060They can and always could but no one wants to go full Rome or Genghis anymore. Even in Vietnam we didn’t want to.I’m not saying we should, but it’s not literally impossible,
>>1515119I don't think that would even stop an insurgency. The reasons Rome and Genghis total war tactics worked so well is because everybody in their time grouped into very obvious cities with walls and fortifications for safety, as this addressed the most common problems that would face a group of people and thus allowed them to be surrounded and conquered. That does not work anymore, and as Israel is finding out in Gaza: This cannot ever address a truly determined enemy who can hide literally almost anywhere. Even with carpet-bombing, they have barely managed to scratch the surface of their insurgent problems, and they're getting more armaments than ever.
>>1515119>>1515124Rome and the Mongols are different cases but basically what both of them had that the US doesn’t now (at least since Korea) was the ability to hold the peace after conquest in most cases. Rome of course fought against insurgencies in places like Iberia, Britain, and Palestine but in all of those Rome eventually maintained the conquest, America failed in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Of course there are circumstances and it’s not like for like and the scope is more apt for an essay or a book but nevertheless. You can look at other examples like the British or the French. The Mongols were more brutal against opposition but also lenient to submission and in most cases they didn’t have an insurgency after conquest because they brought the other people into the fold.
Adding to this >>1515207 if you look at Palestine as an example. If the Israelis gave the Arabs the exact same rights including the ability to form government and legally (within the Israeli system) reclaim land or payment for lost property from 1947 onwards or something like that so there’s no more grievance then there’d be peace. Israel don’t want that though, they want an ethnostate so that’s what they have and obviously the people who were already living there and have had their lands taken and now aren’t treated as equal citizens there’s scope there for insurgency. Bringing this back around to the topic, the Taiwanese might not want to be ruled by Beijing for various reasons and they are prepared to fight back against any potential invasion, on the other hand maybe they don’t mind and they’re ok with the Chinese government taking over, either way there’s two considerations for China; can they conquer Taiwan, and can they keep the peace there after conquest. Right now I’d suggest it’s a negative to both propositions
>>1515207>Rome and the Mongols are different cases but basically what both of them had that the US doesn’t now (at least since Korea) was the ability to hold the peace after conquest in most cases.Rome manage to do it because they had something called Pax Romana. Their doctrine was simple: if a foreigner touched a single hair on the head of a roman, Rome would drive nails into their body and let them die beneath the hot sun.An inability to do something isn't the same as self-restraint. Trump wants to be respected but he isn't truly dangerous to his enemies because he isn't willing to take the steps necessary to protect the United States.
>>1515240Pax Romana shouldn’t be over-simplified in such a reductive manner. Yes the Romans punished their enemies and those who didn’t accept their rule once established, sometimes in a cruel manner, but no it’s not the entirety of the reason why they were capable of ruling over a vast and diverse empire. In some instances that kind of treatment would encourage further insurgency then as now, which is the precise opposite of what any kind of peace doctrine is required to do
I just don't understand this endless Chinese obsession with Taiwan. It's not like they need more space or so. They could co-exist well without any issues. And Taiwan shows that Chinese can get along with real Democracy pretty well if you let them. What's the problem?
>>1515277It occupies a choke point and serves as an enemy base right in their doorstep, the same reason the U.S. cared about Cuba and the USSR cared about Turkey.The tech stuff and the blood and soil claims are just gravy.
>>1515277The One China policy is a big deal to them, and Taiwan is the largest producer of semiconductors and other small computer parts. If China takes it, it would be devastating for American consumers
>>1515277>>1515281>>1515283It’s really the One China Policy. All the other stuff is true but that’s just gravy.It’s easy to understand they want all the formerly Chinese territory under the one government, a united China if you will. Bear in mind if China thought they’d be able to invade and conquer Taiwan they would not hesitate to do so yesterday. The fact that they haven’t is indicative that they’re not confident on a total military victory and they are willing to wait for either Taiwan to change politically and align itself with them or better conditions for the war.
