Taiwan, China, and Biden

I fully expected China to invade Taiwan the moment Joe Biden was inaugurated, but it didn’t happen. So, I blew it. In fact, according to the article in the Epoch Times that is linked to at this Instapundit post, the Biden administration’s support for Taiwan is “rock solid.” This is hard for me to believe, but maybe this is the deep state screwing up the Democrats for a change. Heh.

In the comments at Instapundit, some have suggested that China wants to conquer not just Taiwan, but Singapore as well. I don’t know about this. China and Taiwan have a complicated relationship that I don’t really understand, but Taiwan does not see itself as separate from China. In fact, not only does China see itself as ruler of Taiwan, but Taiwan sees itself as ruler of China. Meanwhile, Singapore does not seem to fit in with this sort of mentality. It has never been part of China. Plus, it has other ethnic groups beside the Chinese (Malays and Indians). So, they are probably safe. As for Taiwan, when I was in Taiwan back in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square business, there were Taiwanese who thought it was a good time to invade China. Sheesh.

Comments

[Harland]

Why would they invade? They *can't* invade. It's literally impossible. The PLAN would need thousands of amphibious transports, which they do not possess, and they have not even begun to build. The joke is that the hypothetical invasion of Taiwan is called the "million man swim" because that's the only way China can get its troops ashore.

Heck, they couldn't even invade Jinmen, and that's like four miles off the mainland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD_EBrnSNa8

Singapore is even more far-fetched. It's distant and sits at the lynchpin of the Straits of Malacca. ALL of China's imported oil from the Middle East passes through here. One word from America and it's cut off. Unlike the worthless, freeloading NATO allies, Singapore has a good military. Small, but well-suited to its role of cutting the strait if push comes to shove.

The long-term plan for Taiwan is economic interdependency followed by eventual union. Don't forget the Chinese are quite patient and willing to wait a century for things to happen. Ten years ago you had to fly through Hong Kong to get from the mainland to Taiwan and now there are direct flights from every city, and Taiwan citizens don't even need a visa to enter.

[John Pepple]

Thanks for the info about the lack of amphibious transports. Though I had assumed they would pave the way with lots of missiles first.