China vows to 'smash' any Taiwan independence move as Trump weighs sanctions

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Washington Post

China vowed Friday to take “countermeasures” against the United States if the Trump administration attempts to punish Beijing for tightening its grip on Hong Kong, ratcheting up tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

Illustrating the potential for this clash to become more than rhetorical, China separately threatened military action to “resolutely smash” any move by Taiwan toward declaring independence. The threat raised the prospect of a regional conflict that could draw in the United States.

Analysts on both sides are increasingly worried about the rapid deterioration in relations, already at their worst in decades.

-snip-

President Trump is set to make an announcement about China on Friday. He has been considering revoking visas for thousands of Chinese students in the United States and imposing financial sanctions against Chinese officials as punishment for a contentious new security law that would dismantle much of Hong Kong’s autonomy.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-vows-to-smash-any-taiwan-independence-move-as-trump-weighs-sanctions/ar-BB14KG1B?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=hplocalnews

[IronLionZion]

1. Taiwan is independent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

China won't be taking it without a lot of bloodshed

[OneCrazyDiamond]

2. +1

[McCamy Taylor]

5. +2

[ripcord]

6. The One China Policy is nothing but political fiction

The only reason the U.S. and other counties haven't recognized Taiwan is that they haven't asked for it. With China putting more pressure on Taiwan they may feel now is the time and if they do we should recognize them as a free and democratic nation then push for their membership in the U.N.

[Dan]

9. If China decides to take Taiwan

if will be over in seven days.

[IronLionZion]

14. Taiwanese military has been preparing for this the entirety of their existence

the whole island is built to fight off invasion. Think Russia trying to invade Finland back in WW2. It would be a very bloody mess.

[Dan]

16. Still stay with my timeline that the war would be over in 7 days.

[dware]

19. I think you underestimate the Taiwanese Military to inflict

heavy damage to Chinese invading forces.
During my career in the Marines, I trained with Taiwan's Marines, they are very good and dedicated to protecting their nation.

The Taiwanese military may be defeated eventually, but it wouldn't be in 7 days and by that time, the US Navy would probably be engaged in the fight.

[Dan]

20. Oh I fully expect the Taiwanese military to inflict maximum damage,

I just don't think that the Chinese Military will care IF they decide to invade.

[dware]

22. They will care once the US Navy is engaged in the fight.

China's Navy is still mainly a coastal Navy, they are building a blue water navy, but they're nowhere near the capabilities of the US Navy.

Let's hope it doesn't come down to this, it would be a colossal disaster for the world.

[Dan]

23. Like you, I hope it never comes down to this,

but I do not believe that we will go to Taiwan's assistance in the event of a conflict with China. Too much has changed, not only from our standing in the world, but also because of our financial obligations to China, and I don't even want to think on how dependent we are on China materials. And finally, I think that America is just tired of being in a state of war with someone - especially given that China is not an easy piece of pie to eat.

[dware]

24. You do make alot of sense.

Hopefully, we'll never be put in that position to have to make that choice.

Good talking to you.

[dware]

10. Yup.

Taiwan's military is no slouch, they can do massive damage to any Chinese invading force, probably hold them off long enough for US forces to arrive.

[IronLionZion]

13. US Forces arriving may depend on who is president at the time

Trump is very likely to screw this up

[dware]

17. Yeah, there is that. nt

[Dan]

15. I don't think that the U.S. can afford to get involved... Trump

has weakened us... plus past political decisions since Bush II.

[keithbvadu2]

3. "sanctions" - Make Americans pay more Trump taxes called tariffs?

"sanctions" - Make Americans pay more Trump taxes called tariffs?

[The Mouth]

4. I'm willing to pay more

to buy something besides Made In China.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

7. Trump being bad, does not make China good.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing his tariffs move a little more of our business to south of our border. Help lift latin america more. besides, the fuel burned in the ships from china is pretty nasty for the air.

[keithbvadu2]

12. Trump tells American companies to stop doing business with China

Trump tells American companies to stop doing business with China

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142358857

Aug 2019

They must be quite far along by now, eh?

[OneCrazyDiamond]

27. I don't think trump telling them does anything.

Their bottom line tells them what to do. Same as it ever was.

I looked to try and find numbers, but I am no sluth.

I did find this opinion story from the NYT that refereneces a reshoring index.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/opinion/coronavirus-jobs-offshoring.html

The index link pointed to here:
https://www.kearney.com/operations-performance-transformation/us-reshoring-index

It says in the 1st paragraph
Kearney’s seventh annual Reshoring Index revealed a dramatic reversal of a five-year trend, as domestic US manufacturing in 2019 commanded a significantly greater share versus the 14 Asian low-cost countries (LCCs) tracked in our study, with manufacturing imports from China registering a particularly sharp decline.

I did find this though too
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-04-23/No-American-companies-are-not-leaving-China-PVm9OKx14I/index.html

[keithbvadu2]

28. Mitt Romney specialized in looting American companies and sending their jobs to China.

Mitt Romney specialized in looting American companies and sending their jobs to China.

Trump family had much of their own products made in China and other countries.

"America First" meant a sales target.

[keithbvadu2]

29. "Too many jobs in China lost," Trump tweeted... Such concern!

"Too many jobs in China lost," Trump tweeted... Such concern!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142058871

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/387515-schumer-hits-trump-for-offering-aid-to-chinese-company-how-about-helping

Senate Republicans drop bid to block Trump from helping Chinese telecom giant ZTE

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142115196

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senate-republicans-cave-to-trump-on-deal-with-chinese-telecom-giant-zte/2018/07/20/28ae5820-8c3f-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html

--------------------

UPDATED: Trump pledges to help Chinese phonemaker ZTE 'get back into business'

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142058783

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/13/trump-pledges-to-help-chinese-phone-maker-zte-get-back-into-business/?utm_term=.7f2fcafb7710

ZTE, a company involved in hacking American cyber security.


A $500 million loan to Trump related projects works wonders to make America protect Chinese jobs.

[duforsure]

8. trump from now on until he's ousted

Will intentionally do anything he can for revenge because he knows he will lose this upcoming election , so he lashes out because of it, and until he's gone he will continue this damaging pattern, which will really hurt the Republican Party for years to come.

[Baclava]

18. I think Trump would welcome a shooting war with China, put a lot of people back to work, he'd say

[Dan]

21. but unlike when I was in the military back in the early seventies...

Today, I don't think we can win.

Even back then, I remember a briefing we had that indicated that the military would have to kill a million a day to win or at least break even.

Of course, I was just a dump enlisted man.

[Baclava]

26. Maybe not a full war, a brief skirmish, sink a few of their ships, show them who's boss, yeah, that

Ground forces are so 90's, we got a space force!

Power up them orbiting laser platforms boys!

[Jedi Guy]

30. The good and bad news is that any shooting war with China would be fought on their turf.

They lack the ability to project force like the United States can. I don't think it'd be a ground invasion or anything of that sort, though. Putting boots on the ground in China would be an awful mistake for a whole host of reasons. It'd be an incredibly bloody furball. And, of course, China is a nuclear power.

The real problem, IMO, would be the pile-on and ripple effects. Will Russia jump in on the side of the Chinese? Could be. The days of the Sino-Soviet Split are long gone, so Russia may well back China up. China locks up the South China Sea, since they've been building all those islands to do precisely that. That chokes off a tremendous amount of the world's shipping capacity. The economic ripple effects alone would be catastrophic to the world economy.

Let's hope that there's still someone sane enough to restrain Trump from doing something that stupid. Unfortunately, he can authorize the use of military force for 60 days, I think, without Congress being able to stop him.

[BigOleDummy]

25. Ready for trumps War?

He will see an invasion of Taiwan as just the thing he "needs" to get people to rally round the flag and keep him in office. The cynical side of me thinks this brou ha ha about Taiwan , at this point in time, serves the 2 dictators very well. A distraction from the monumental failings of our chump in chiefs administration and a handy dandy scapegoat/distraction for the Chinese. Chump himself owes the Chinese much more than we are aware of inho, maybe as much as he owes Putin.