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Taiwan is behind schedule in preparations to fend off Chinese invasion
- ganeshkrishnan 2y ago[flagged]
- SteveNuts 2y ago> The war in Ukraine is over. What do you mean by that
- ganeshkrishnan 2y ago[flagged]
- ethbr1 2y agoZelensky has been requesting peace since the beginning of the war -- Russia returns to Ukraine'# internationally recognized borders, and the war's over. And last I checked, the manpower shortage should be addressed in 2026, after Ukraine finally lowered their draft age earlier the year.
- nashashmi 2y agoActually only the west is trying to stop the whole peace deal. Zelensky is asking for ceasefire. No one else wants it. No one wants peace.
- bbor 2y agoTo be fair “defending two sovereign states from invasion” isn’t really war mongering. No comments on Lebanon tho… fingers crossed the bluster dies out before more innocents are killed. Not looking good.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoMorally right or not, even the US and allies have a limit to how many military resources exist and at what rate they can produce more. Fighting on three fronts at the same time, especially when one of them involves a country that supplies much of your industrial capacity, just isn't viable.
- tylerflick 2y agoYou underestimate the US military industrial complex.
- ClumsyPilot 2y agoToday it’s less an industrial complex and more a graft and lobbying complex. Look at the amount of equipment US has lost in Vietnam - 10,000 aircraft, including strategic bombers! incomparably more ammunition. Those losses were considered sustainable! Now it can’t produce enough dumb artillery shells!
- danielheath 2y agoUS military doctrine doesn't _use_ dumb artillery shells, because it assumes total air superiority.
- ClumsyPilot 2y agoThat’s a questionable assumption, but fine - look at production capacity of air to ground missiles, or whatever it is that you think is relevant. You will find that US can only produce a fraction of what it could in 1970’s.
- mullingitover 2y agoNo further production is necessary. Simply loan out a few fully stocked Ohio-class subs and watch how quickly the bullies back off.
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- Mountain_Skies 2y agoDepleted stores from fighting in Ukraine plus a hot war in the Middle East probably would make the defense of Taiwan impossible. If I'm Taiwan, I really don't want things in the Middle East to get out of control.
- ianburrell 2y agoThe weapons need for Ukraine and Taiwan are mostly different. For the US, Ukraine is mostly ground combat and strike. Taiwan would be all naval and warplanes. There are a few overlaps, like anti-tank missiles and Patriot missiles. The money is different with Taiwan being able to buy or build weapons. Taiwan does need to increase their defense spending. They should license build weapons, and then sell the excess to Ukraine.
- encoderer 2y agoWe were never at war with Eurasia. We’ve always been at war with east asia.
- nashashmi 2y agoWe were always at war with those who dont align with us. Russia. China. Middle east nationalism.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y agoyou forgot to add Latin America, Africa, South East Asia. Basically 90% of the world. One of the geographical trick question is "Which country has the US NOT bombed?" and not many people can answer this.
- dang 2y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. I suppose I should add that this is not a response to your political views, whatever they may be. It's a response to your account's pattern of posting low-quality and flamebait comments, especially on divisive topics. We don't need you to change your views but we do need you to stop posting like that.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y agoThe whole post is low quality simping for war in one more geography pushed by the thin veneer of drum beats of the US military media. It's the same "Iraq has wmd" Bs all over again pushed by these trash rags. Of course it will be "low quality and flamebait" for y'all
- dang 2y agoYou may be right about the article but I was talking about your HN comments.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y agoPushing for diplomacy and peace for better economy is heresy now as it always was. It's your forum so I will stop commenting. Peace out
- __turbobrew__ 2y agoIm kind of surprised that Taiwan has never pursued a nuclear arsenal. They have the resources and technology to do so. A few nukes is going to be more of a deterrent than any number of reservists. The past few decades has shown that the greater powers of the world have no problem squashing you — unless you possess nuclear weapons.
- godelmachine 2y agoGood point. Probably the Americans have dissuaded them from building a nuclear warhead in exchange for guaranteed protection?
- Waterluvian 2y agoWhich makes it critically important to see through to the end that Ukraine wins. Otherwise South Korea, Taiwan, and others would be right in recognizing that a nuclear arsenal is the better option.
- zarzavat 2y agoThis has always been true though. Consider, if the US is a friend worth depending on why do its closest allies UK, Israel and France still maintain nuclear weapons at great expense? In Europe the fact that the US dragged its feet entering WWII is still within living memory. Asian countries perhaps are still to learn this lesson.
- hartator 2y agoEurope dragged their feet in both ww as well. No one wants war.
- kkfx 2y agoActually UK (where a civil war seems just started) ruling class desperate need a war to remain in power, USA are in a far better position, but their ruling class still need a war to avoid a civil one. Israel ruling class desperately need to keep the war up or they'll go to jail so... At least three powers desperately look for war. Of course, the people do not want wars, but so far most people in the world have forgot the old way of unite to makes rulers obey so they obey instead.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- layer8 2y agohttps://archive.is/pwxAk https://archive.is/pwxAk
- worstspotgain 2y agoIf there ever was a major conflict with a diplomatic alternative, this is it. China's attitude towards Taiwan is mostly petty and dates back to the drunken bar fight with Chiang Kai-shek, who's been dead for 50 years. The key to peace is the general understanding that the two countries will be reunited at some unspecified future point. Historically, this has been the keystone that let the doves carry the day. In the 2000s the Taiwanese were floating the idea of an EU-style arrangement, which could be the bridge there. We keep letting Putin's stooges egg us on against China, which he needs to do to keep it firmly in his camp. I wouldn't be surprised if confrontational fervors in Taiwan were being stoked by outside sources. The one thing that's changed the most in recent years is that China's military might has been increasing steadily. This both increases the risk of war and is motivated by the antagonism. De-escalating the Taiwan Strait with diplomatic means can pay off handsomely.
- mdorazio 2y agoThe obvious counterpoint to this argument is what happened in Hong Kong. A diplomatic resolution seems unlikely to have a net-positive outcome for Taiwan under the current CCP regime.
- worstspotgain 2y agoTaiwan has obviously been watching the Hong Kong integration closely. Had it gone much better, Taiwan would have probably agreed to something similar. Frankly I think they were actually expecting much worse. An EU-style arrangement seems ideal in the medium term. It lets Taiwan have a positive long-term influence on Chinese politics, while preventing HK-style crackdowns in the other direction.
- pyuser583 2y agoHow does an “EU” style arrangement make sense between two countries, one of which is extremely large the other extremely small?
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- black_13 2y ago[dead]
- refurb 2y agoThis seems like the kind of article that US intelligence agencies would seed in the media. Prep the voters for mass support of Taiwan from the US.
- nashashmi 2y agoDont leave us hanging. Give us the details why you think so. I haven’t read the article yet.
- refurb 2y ago"In a 17-minute trailer released last week, the public responds" It begs the question why it was written. What's new? Not much and that's apparent based on regurgitating information we already know. According to the author, it's a trailer for a drama being released next year.
- kkfx 2y agoJust to clear some facts: - China (Popular Republic of) have NO NEED to invade Taiwan (or Republic of China, that's what they call themselves) because an aero-maritime blockade would suffice to starve Taiwan to death; - they do not do so simply because they want Taiwan semiconductor industry, witch is still ahead of their own domestic one, otherwise Taiwan is damn easy to erase; - being a small HYPER-dense island Taiwan can't be ready for a war at all, there is no measure they can act to stop an invasion, they can only deter it stating "if someone invade we blown up our factories, the sole reason for anyone to invade, because or we rule ourselves or we die". I'm not sure in this last case how many people will comply anyway, since while they hate each others they do call themselves Chinese on both sides and they are not democracy on both sides. For some from Taiwan living in Shenzen makes no difference in quality of life, OR it's even better in Shenzen than in Taipei.
- tim333 2y agoChina would have problems with an aero-maritime blockade if the US opposed it.
- kkfx 2y agoAs the USA would have problems confronting China: https://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/NDS-commission.html https://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/NDS-commission.html or a journalistic summary of the same report https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/07/us-might-lose-war-china-congressional-commission-says/398418/ https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/07/us-might-lose-war... Consider a thing: last real war between modern powers was the Korean wars, those with experience there are not on duty anymore. Modern war in the west thereafter was only against far inferior enemies and most of them was lost anyway. Meanwhile PRC have reasons from their citizens perspective to attack Taiwan, USA citizens to not feel much about Taiwan since most do not understand it's semiconductor superpower, so on one side you get motivated soldiers, on the other not so much. State that China internally it's a dire state LIKE USA, so both do not want a war, but while China do not want it for real USA need it to keep the dollar as a global reserve or they'll face a civil war due to rising inequalities and poverty, something that's essentially started in the UK even if formally they state they are only some fascist rioting for a recent stabbing, I've no doubt those who push/start the riots are fascist, but I pretty sure most participants are just impoverished people also made angry by recent conscription attempt. USA are in a far less bad situation, but not so far https://asiatimes.com/2024/07/one-inch-from-a-potential-civil-war/ https://asiatimes.com/2024/07/one-inch-from-a-potential-civi... Beside that we in the west feel no reason nor desire for a war, knowing it's something needed by the ruling class against the people, most do not even know/believe resources are scarce enough to demand a war to grab them in quantity to keep our living conditions at the expense of someone else. While in many other countries people feel the need for a war for themselves, so no matter much their armaments, tech level, and so on, they are mostly young, motivated and desperate enough.
- Caius-Cosades 2y agoReading between the lines it seems to me that Taiwanese political leadership may have forgotten to ask themselves this rather simple question; What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership? You don't get second chances in life. You don't get a new body after you've been mangled. Or starved to death, as would be the likely scenario in a armed confrontation between China and Taiwan. Politicians would be fine as usual in their ivory towers.
- jmclnx 2y agoSeems a few China shills here, I will bite. > What, exactly, would the average taiwanese benefit from risking their lives in behest of the political leadership? So here is an answer: Knowing what is really happening in the rest of the world by reading news articles from many Countries. They will not have to worry about a Social Score System. In Taiwan one can criticize the Gov and people. People in Taiwan will not have to worry about what the say. I am sure there are many more things. Social score: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System Well, I guess I will never get a Visa to visit China due to this post since I heard they can deny a visa based upon your social media posts.
- shrimp_emoji 2y agoThey are an imperial shill.
- tim333 2y agoI'm not sure fighting a ground war would make much sense for Taiwan. If they can stop a Chinese invasion it would be by taking out approaching ships and aircraft with missiles. If China can land troops they'd probably be better off surrendering and being another Hong Kong.