View Single Post
Old 12-11-2003, 11:26 PM   #19 (permalink)
Zeld2.0
Cherry-pickin' devil's advocate
 
Location: Los Angeles
Quote:
Originally posted by Ustwo
Be interesting if China has the balls to DO anything if Tiawan decides to vote anyways.

Of course we will defend them, so I doubt China will do anything if they are smart, its not time for them to threaten WWIII, they aren't ready yet.
Not necessarily true. Myself having heritage in China and family members on half my family from China (hell my grandfather fought the communists, then the japanese, then the communists again with the Nationalists before going to Taiwan with the family) - I can say that a lot of the situation isn't so easy as it was before.

Before the U.S. recognized China it was simple - Taiwan was the real government. People do have to realize that Taiwan is not considered a nation by the U.S., despite the rhetoric we have, and supporting Taiwan or not is much more complex than "they invaded, we fight, etc."

China honestly is in no need to take Taiwan, if anything, much of it is principle and grudges left over from 50 years ago. China still suffers from many humanitarian issues and violations and what not, but its defenitely different from the Mao era. China has gone a long way in the last 10 years, and their influence in world economy is defenitely a large one. Any war with China right now would prove to be a huge blow for the U.S. economy, which is still in recovery mode.

And the fact is, going to war over Taiwan is not in teh greatest interest of any nation, and most people from Taiwan agree that the U.S. probably won't be willing to go to war so readily over any issues there right now. In the Cold War, stakes in Taiwan were larger as part of the containment of Communism. Now in the post-Cold War, containment and what not are not such alrge issues.

As for my take, I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I love Taiwan, and I wish democracy and freedom could be seen throughout all of China, not just Taiwan. On the other hand, realistically speaking, Taiwan is a sinking nation, and it would prove far more beneficial to Taiwan to join with China, provided China is willing to continue its trend in improving the nation.

And I do emphasize to everyone that much of the issue isn't political or anything, much of it is ideological grudges left over from years and years of both sides being brainwashed by their governments into saying they were "right" and the othersides "wrong." Much of the arguments between the nations are purely based on symbolic meanings, and not necessarily realistic claims. And do note that Taiwan is not a nation even recognized by the U.S. - in fact it is recognized by very very few nations, and thus in the event of war with China, its not so easy as in the past to have the "demcoracies vs. communism" because the lines have been blurred by far.

Last edited by Zeld2.0; 12-11-2003 at 11:30 PM..
Zeld2.0 is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360