Back to the future

China appears to confront US defense of Taiwan

Wow, interesting stuff.   Two things strike me right away on this:

1) I have recently been listening to The Teaching Company's History of the United States (recommended by the way) and listened to the part about Pearl Harbor the other day.  Some of the text of that history lecture and the text of this article is nearly identical.  Who says the past doesn't repeat itself?

"A weakened initial U.S. response to a Chinese assault on Taiwan, for example, could result in the collapse of Taiwan's military resistance," said a Rand Corporation study for the U.S. Air Force published late last month. "The island might therefore capitulate before the United States could bring all its combat power to bear.

"If that were to happen, it seems unlikely that the United States would continue the conflict, even though U.S. military power would largely be intact," the study said

The Japanese in 1941 made the miscalculation that a quick initial overwhelming strike against the US Navy would undermine the US will to fight, particularly since US interests in the Pacific were perceived by the Japanese as tangential.   The Japanese likewise believed that the strident isolationist rhetoric of the US Congress during the 1930's indicated a fundamental lack of martial spirit, of the willingness to engage in any foreign action at all.   Similarity is quite striking really.  Guess we all know they were kind of wrong on both counts.

2) The high technology weapons the Chinese are deploying that the article gushes about are largely the result of purchases from Russia and some European nations.  However, a good portion are also the result of US companies selling "dual-use" goods to China; that is goods that have both civil and military use.  Although there are export control laws designed to prevent this from happening with sensitive technology, they are quite easily circumvented.  Additionally, organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the US-China Business Council are actively lobbying the US gov't to liberalize trade in such goods.  In the event of an actual conflict with China over Taiwan or any other issue, I can only hope that these traitors will receive the traditional punishment for treason.

Comments

[shamao de ye]

you are indeed a typical western shamao, living China and bashing China for dedending their territory, China not welcome such an idiot like you, go home!!!