What evidence can you point to that Bush is that serious about protecting my beautiful island, let alone recognizing her? We know Clinton would sell Taiwan down the river for a photo-op and a couple of decent Guangzhou whores. In fact, Clinton gave the Chinese US nuclear secrets and did sell Taiwan down the river for campaign cash. Clinton is traitor. Bush a stateman: But Is he serious? IS HE SERIOUS? ABOUT TAIWAN'S FREEDOM?

How do you pronounce that second one? Eagerstan? Oogerstan? Weeghurstan?

is taiwan serious about its own defense ? how many days worth of ammunition does it have ? has it finally taken delivery of the weapons systems it has delayed for 5+ years ? sort your house out first then come talk about how serious the u.s. is.

in my book taiwan is just another south korean cry baby false friend. look to japan for a good example.

Taiwan is very serious about their defense.

Right now, the PRC could obliterate Taiwan, but they couldn't invade and hold Taiwan.

That's why Taiwan needs the U.S., (or some stronger power), to take the annihilation card off the table. They can handle the rest.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at December 11, 2005 1:07 AM

Chicken Leg:

I don't know about recognizing Taiwan, but it seems to me that the U.S. Seventh Fleet says something. Don't worry about former-President Clinton. He's in the past.

not according to "The Dignified Rant". reportedly they have 5 days of ammunition and are also being tight fisted with regards to paying for new weapons systems.

You ger, I think

Chicken:

Kurdistan.

If it's a choice between obliterating Taiwan and letting it be, China will let it be.

RC: sure, just like the russians decided to let chechnya be...a pile of rubble. the willful blindness of people to the reality of leftists is a continuing source of wonder to me.

Putting aside how long Taiwan's weapons would last or whether or not China could occupy Taiwan or how long it would take to reduce Taiwan to rubble or if the U.S. navy would come to its aid, the question is, why would China want to reduce Taiwan to rubble?

It's too unfathomable, even for the inscrutable east. The Chinese I know are far from stupid, so the argument that a war will take the peasants' minds off their misery, is bogus. It's no longer the dark ages even in China.

erp, if they were willing to kill 77M citizens of the PRC itself, then what in the world makes you think they won't hesitate to exterminate every person on formosa? why is it so difficult to accept that leftists are irrational and any effort spent on trying to understand them is futile.

Sunny, I don't think Chinese leaders would hesitate to kill as many people as would be necessary to gain their ends. My question is why do so many people think it would be in their best interests to reduce Taiwan to rubble? You're right that leftists are mostly irrational, but they are usually pretty rational when affects their comforts or their purses.

erp, the logic of why the Chinese Communists would be more than willing to destroy Taiwan is actually quite rational.

The ultimate goal of the CCP is to hold on to power. But it can't do so anymore by portraying itself as the vanguard of China's working class, because no one believes in Marxism-Leninist fantasies anymore. Instead, the CCP now tries to acquire political legitimacy by pretending to be the fierce patriotic defender of China's unbreakable unity.

In this new fascist fantasy, the drive to recover Taiwan has become the most holy of missions on which the CCP can't be seen to make even the slightest compromise. Given a choice between losing power by losing Taiwan and holding on to power by destroying a Taiwan that has declared independence, the Communists would not hesitate to kill every Taiwanese down to the last woman and child. It would be a very rational decision by China's dictators.

"your rationale is not my rationale".

Kill all Taiwanese and then what do they for a second act?

erp, what the CCP's second act would be after it'd killed off the Taiwanese is a separate question. The point is that for the time being at least, through their act of democide, the Chinese Communists would have been able to continue to hold on to power.

Many years ago, Dutch Schultz, a notorious New York City gangster who was entering his period of decline, was being pursued by Thomas Dewey, who was at the time an aggressive crimefighting district attorney. Schultz was so angry he wanted to assassinate Dewey, and asked the other top gangleaders for their permission. His underworld colleagues refused, believing Dewey's murder would create long-term troubles for the entire criminal underworld. Dutch Schultz decided to put a murder plan in motion anyway. He didn't care about the long-term problems an assassination would bring on everyone else. He only cared about getting rid of the immediate pressure Dewey was putting on him.

I would suggest that the CCP's leaders, who are also now in their period of decline, are far less likely to think as Dutch Schultz's colleagues did and far more likely to act as the bloody-minded Dutchman did.

x. From Wikipedia: Mobster Dutch Schultz was reportedly killed because he was planning to assassinate Dewey, which his compatriots felt would draw too much unwanted law enforcement attention to their operations.

Dare we hope there is someonhe in China ready and able to perform the same courtesy as Dutch's pals did to save their operation and the gazillions trade with the U.S. brings them.

erp, that's an interesting thought!

yes, the same brave souls who stopped mao.

dot. You must see that China is a far different place than when Mao was in power.

more pollution and less women.

the best chinese live in America and we are the better for it.

No argument there. Everyone is better off living here.

I worked with a lot of Chinese, both from the mainland and from Taiwan and found them charming, great sense of humor and pleasant colleagues.

This was about 15 years ago, and the Reds, as we called them then, were a bit defensive when they first arrived, but warmed up considerably as the weeks passed. They were only here on loan and we were all sad when they had to go back.

The Taiwanese were Americans who were born in the wrong country. Fit in right away. Many found a way to stay and of course, their kids, were indistinguishable from the rest of our kids.