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> Take a Taiwan invasion scenario, which is the PLA’s top operational planning priority. While much hand-wringing has been done in recent years about the shifti
by bhrgunatha 13y ago
> Take a Taiwan invasion scenario, which is the PLA’s top operational planning priority. While much hand-wringing has been done in recent years about the shifting military balance in the Taiwan Strait, so far no one has been able to explain how any invading PLA force would be able to cross over 100 nautical miles of exceedingly rough water and successfully land on the world’s most inhospitable beaches, let alone capture the capital and pacify the rest of the rugged island.
I've no idea where the author gets the idea that Taiwan's beaches are the world's most inhospitable. China has continually increased it's stockade of short range missiles located along the coast by the Taiwan Strait. Their strategy most likely would be to decapitate the command and control structure and probably much of the military hardware along with power generation and infrastructure in Taiwan first. It would be a relatively relaxed "invasion" across the Taiwan Strait after that - assuming no retaliation or retribution from the US or Japan first.
- matthewrudy 13y agoI think the last point is valid, though. Taiwan people are very proud of their independence. I can't imagine how Beijing could approach winning over hearts and minds.
- BugBrother 13y agoThere are more than one way to skin that cat. I've been working in Romania a while. The takeover here by Soviet after WWII wasn't ... nice. E.g. all grown people with German ancestry were sent to Siberia for at least years (lots of people in Transylvania). And so on. tl;dr: One way to win someone's heart is by using a knife.
- democracy 13y agoWikipedia says: By year 1950 about 253,000 Rumäniendeutsche were expelled and 421,846 remained in Romania.[citation needed] By year 2011 about 36,000 remained as the result of mass migration to Germany. [4] And for people involved in SS crimes - what do you think we should have done to them - sent them to St Tropez instead?
- BugBrother 13y agoI think you are fully aware of that Wikipedia says this about 1944-1945, which was what I discussed: "The Red Army occupation lead to the deportation to Siberia of more than 200,000 ethnic Germans of Romania (around 75,000 Transylvanian Saxons), Hungary and Yugoslavia. Most of them died in prison camps." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_settlements_in_the_Soviet_Union#Deportations_of_Germans_from_the_occupied_territories_in_1944.E2.80.931945 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_settlements_in_the_Sovie... The Saxons in particular had lived many hundreds of years in Transylvania. (Or do you just approve of sending civilians to bad deaths, because of their ancestry?)
- nl 13y agoTake a Taiwan invasion scenario, which is the PLA’s top operational planning priority. Oh pleaseeee! The Chinese plan to invade Taiwan is political theater designed to reinforce their "One China" policy. I'm sure it's the PLA's "top operation planning priority" in the sense that it's important they are seen to be planning in. But in reality, the real priorities are these: 1) Gaining control of the oil and gas fields in the South China Sea 2) Deal with any internal unrest 3) What the f--k to do if conflict breaks out on the Korean peninsula 4) Ensuring energy supply by keeping sea lanes open to the Persian Gulf, and attempting to build, protect and control as many possible pipelines into China as possible. Taiwan isn't even a real enemy. The trade ties between Taiwan and the mainland are almost as strong as between Hong Kong and the mainland. Here's a prediction: The US will invade Cuba before China invades Taiwan.