> US has been arming Taiwan since its inception. How is now different? After Nixon and the relations being restored in between China and the US, a detente was

> US has been arming Taiwan since its inception. How is now different? After Nixon and the relations being restored in between China and the US, a detente was reached on this. The US avoided arming Taiwan in a way that it could be a threat to China, and China did not press the issue. The US broke that detente. > Taiwan is rich enough that can build own weapons No non-superpower country is capable of building their own weapons that could allow them to stand against a superpower. > In particular, Taiwan could make nuclear weapons Having a few missiles that can mount nuclear warheads and travel a thousand km is not having 'nuclear weapons'. Every major superpower has the air defense systems that can shoot down such missiles from up to 500-600 km and dozens of kilometers altitude. You must have a legion of such missiles with multiple warheads to be able to saturate the defenses. > But couldn’t defeat the US Navy beyond range of aircraft and missiles. That's decade old thinking. China has hypersonic anti ship missiles that can reach over 1k km now, and a lot of submarines. Gone are the days of the aircraft carrier...