China-Taiwan Tunnel

China and taiwan plan on building a tunnel under the taiwan strait yet tiawan "official dismissed the plans as unfeasible."

Ambitious Chinese plans to build a tunnel connecting Taiwan and China pushed ahead at an academic conference in the mainland, with a tunnel between Pingtan in Fujian province and Hsinchu here the favored route -- but a Taiwan official dismissed the plans as unfeasible.
The proposed tunnel between Pingtan and Hsinchu, with a length of 120 kilometers, would be the world's longest and most difficult to construct, with the anticipated volume of construction over three times that of the tunnel connecting Britain and France

www.chinapost.com.tw...

But still woundt it be cool if there were a tunnel between china and taiwan

This could be a far-fetched idea to get the troops to Taiwan... They can't get them there by boat. Not sure about Taiwan's AA defenses for an air assault, but yeah. Far fetched idea to get troops across. No wonder Taiwan said it was unfeasable...

Originally posted by Shaker
This could be a far-fetched idea to get the troops to Taiwan... They can't get them there by boat. Not sure about Taiwan's AA defenses for an air assault, but yeah. Far fetched idea to get troops across. No wonder Taiwan said it was unfeasable...

Yeah, especially from the military angle. Closing off a tunnel during a time of war could be accomplished pretty readily...say, a very small tactical nuke detonated inside the tunnel. Now, as for a way to infiltrate some sort of fifth-column...

Imagine fighting under-sea in a costrophobic tunnel that would be worst fighting scenrio i could think off

I don't think they'd do it that way. I'm sure China would be smarter than that actually. They'd probably build another smaller tunnel underneath or next to the main one and use that to get troops to the other side. The only problem they'd have other than keeping that part secret would be about keeping the troops hidden on the other end until they were ready to strike. Unless of course they just plan on throwing troops away...

In case of war:

A. One American submarine

B. A couple of high-yield conventional explosive torpedoes

C. End of tunnel...and anything in it...

imho

Originally posted by apocalypticon
In case of war:

A. One American submarine

B. A couple of high-yield conventional explosive torpedoes

C. End of tunnel...and anything in it...

imho

Now what about if Mainland China is doing it secretly? Not giving any hint of what they're doing, not even stepping up on the reunification rhetoric?

They could get a bunch of troops over by the time anyone got a sub over there. Besides, wouldn't the tunnel be underground anyway? Seems that if it is, it'd be pointless with the torpedos.

[edit on 13-11-2005 by Shaker]

ya' know...you're right...

We started out talking about tunnels, but I was really picturing an underwater "tube", not technically a tunnel.

...so maybe the sub was a bad idea...

How deep is the ocean between China and Taiwan?

Sounds like an engineering nightmare.

[edit on 11/13/2005 by apocalypticon]

Well if there were a war between china and tiawan if that tunnel was build it would be the first to go and since china has no way to deliver its troops to tiawan they came up of the idea of the tunnel but the tiawan-ese arent that dumb

What will the tunnel be used for any way? if it for trading... using boats is more feasible... plus they have to take up the cost of making one... it would be a waste of money... unless china is planing something for taiwan in the future.

What were the reasons France and the UK built their underwater tunnel?

I know it wouldn't be in the same context because China and Taiwan don't really like eachother as much as Britain and France does, or did at the time of the Chunnel...

The purpose of the tunnel would be to improve relations, to facilitate more open borders and allow a greater volume of trade, nothing military for the reason some of you suggested.

Originally posted by The Middle Kingdom
The purpose of the tunnel would be to improve relations, to facilitate more open borders and allow a greater volume of trade, nothing military for the reason some of you suggested.

Still, this is completely unfeasible until the Chinese government take a more civil line toward the elected government of Taiwan.

*cough*

China has had improving relation with Taiwan and a healthy trade relationship for a while now FYI. Even if there are... political difficulties.

Originally posted by The Middle Kingdom
*cough*

China has had improving relation with Taiwan and a healthy trade relationship for a while now FYI. Even if there are... political difficulties.

It still makes absolutely no sense to build a tunnel between the two countries until there are normalized relations between them. Taiwan would like to have normalized relations with China. It is the government in Peiping that won't accept that.

That is quite irrelevent, its been discussed time and again for months upon months, I won't discuss it any furthor.

Originally posted by The Middle Kingdom
That is quite irrelevent, its been discussed time and again for months upon months, I won't discuss it any furthor.

What's irrelevant, the fact that Peiping won't normalize relations with Taiwan and accept that Taiwan doesn't belong to it? That most certainly is relavent. This isn't France and the UK, who have been friends for more than a century. This is Taiwan and China, one of whom claims the entire territory of the other. Taiwan's isn't a threat to China's security, but China is Taiwan's SOLE security threat.

Oh? Last time I check ROC still had maps that included all of China including Tibet. As for the issue in general I am not discussioning it and I request that you don't discuss it either, its been discussed to death in other threads and I do not wish to waste my time in it any further.

Originally posted by The Middle Kingdom
Oh? Last time I check ROC still had maps that included all of China including Tibet. As for the issue in general I am not discussioning it and I request that you don't discuss it either, its been discussed to death in other threads and I do not wish to waste my time in it any further.

The legality of the ROC claim to Taiwan is discussed in another thread in the Politics@abovetopsecret section.

Those maps you describe are not easily found in Taiwan anymore. Few current maps show Mongolia as belonging to the ROC. Most maps found locally today actually make reference to the PRC controlling China, not the ROC. The only ones that still show the old ROC boundaries are published by dye-in-the-wool pan-Blue companies that can't accept the reality that 1) the PRC is the legitimate government of China, and 2) Taiwan is not a part of China.