Fool me thrice…
—the Chinese [ships], probably
Why?
If a Chinese ship decided to coast along our shore a bit too close to our Pacific Coast … how do you think we would react?
The best example of this would be between the US and Cuba … if a Chinese ship went and patrolled contested waters off the coast of Cuba, the whole world sets off alarm bells and everyone gets excited.
Canadian and American warships off the coast of China in contested waters with Taiwan? It’s considered so normalized that North Americans and Europeans can extend their military and navy into foreign waters any time they please.
My favourite twist to this story is how we like to provoke China yet almost everything we buy sell and trade is made exclusively in China. We pretend to hate or dislike their government and system … yet a huge percentage of our business is tied to them.
Why are we even provoking China on Taiwan? Which idiot in Canadian leadership actually thinks China has the capability or desire to capture Taiwan? The best China could do is blockade and starve Taiwan out, but it’s pretty much fucking impossible to invade.
Fuck, Taiwan and China were on positively friendly diplomatic terms up until 2016.
Capability? China has the world’s largest military. They have the largest Naval fleet. China is and has been an expansionist power through its history. Their current aim is to restore Chinese pride and put China at its rightful place as the center of the universe. Any part they claim as theirs they are using those military assets to assert their claim, like the islands in Southeast Asian waters far away from their shores. This is the same attitude that allowed Russia to invade Ukraine twice.
Have you seen Taiwan? It’s the world’s largest floating ship. Nevermind that Taiwan also claims and is enforcing their claims on islands in Southeast Asian waters… oh look, Taiwan and Mainland China claim the exact same islands! Odd.
A large-scale naval landing is an immensely complicated logistical exercise even on relatively flat land like in Normandy. Imagine what it would be like on Taiwan?
Plus, China has simply projected no hard power away from its immediate vicinity. How exactly do you propose China would become the center of the universe without an aircraft carrier that can actually operate outside of Chinese waters?
