> Ironically that is exactly what you are doing with Taiwan and its defensive capabilities. Taiwan has been preparing for an invasion and attacks from the large

> Ironically that is exactly what you are doing with Taiwan and its defensive capabilities. Taiwan has been preparing for an invasion and attacks from the larger mainland since the revolution and has become one of the defensible places on the planet. If you're swallowing the cool-aid, definitely. In practice, not really. Just one example: Their mandatory military training has been considered, as just one example, atrociously useless by graduates and little more than a "summer camp." So much so that it was recently changed starting in 2024 to be one year instead of four months. Graduates were causing scandal by saying they did not even learn how to fire a gun during their conscription. https://globaltaiwan.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GTB-Volume-9-Issue-3.pdf https://globaltaiwan.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GTB-Volu... https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/wah0u6/dispelling_the_myth_of_taiwan_military_competency/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/wah0u6/dis... This comes in addition to a poll (by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation), which found that 78% of respondents aged 20 and over (who, again, would have been in the mandatory military service), said they had "no confidence that Taiwan could defend itself." https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/taiwans-military-needs-overhaul-amid-china-threat-critics-say https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/taiwans-military-needs-ov... https://www.voanews.com/a/taiwan-mulls-lengthening-military-service-/6523728.html https://www.voanews.com/a/taiwan-mulls-lengthening-military-... So think about this. You're bragging about Taiwan. 78% of the young people who have been through its training have said they have no confidence in their ability to defend themselves. That's a really bad omen. Even if the poll were 20% off, if that were possible, 58% of young people saying they didn't have confidence would be terrifying, and I'm not going to just say, "well, my statistics show you should be fine, therefore you're wrong" to people who live there. > Why are you assuming Taiwan would just keel over and allow that to happen? Why are you assuming the Chinese navy would be capable from preventing the US and its allies from conducting freedom of navigation operations through the blockade? Because, China threatens anyone who dares assist. It's not a military question, it's a political question about whether angering China is a safe move. While blockading Russia is scary; blockading China would be an economically suicidal for any nation that attempts it. This is combined with the threat of internal sabotage and potential military actions on any nation assisting Taiwan. And while I'm not supporting Trump here, think about our border, which had 2.5 million encounters in 2023. If there were just 50,000 CCP officers in that 2.5 million, the damage they could do in a coordinated effort would be incredible.