Truth about China, page 10

Originally posted by x08
pilotshinjiikaru > Hi! Mandarin speaking (can't read well though) aussie here~ Though I'm living on the other side of the strait.

I don't know if your 500,000 counts Taiwan as part of China, but it's the same here. My mother-in-law got diagnosed a while ago with cancer caused by (supposedly) the fumes from when she cooked. I'm sure local pollution didn't help. There are quite a few Mandarin speaking foreigners, both here AND in China. But, if you're overseas - it's much rarer. Similar to the students here who spend years learning English and still can't speak for crud.

Personally (trying to stay on topic), I see China's military build up as a big threat for Taiwan. As someone mentioned before - IF China DID make a move to take Taiwan, the US is too tied up with the Middle East to offer much assistance. I don't really think Taiwan would stand much of a chance. Most of the military is made up by compulsary conscription at the age of 21. These conscripts are only trained in the basics and spend much of their time doing monotonous tasks. The majority of people I know feel that it's a waste of time, and quite a few find ways around it (leaving the country for certain periods of time helps).

I can see both positives and negatives from Taiwan returning to China. While China is communist (which I don't particularly agree with), it would most likely solve all these stupid stunts we see the government pulling via our media. I mean... C'mon! Throwing cups of water at each other in parliament? Many of my friends (locals) admit that they don't really care if China takes over except for the media control etc. It's not really going to make much of a change to their daily lives apart from media.

And as for these new fighter jets. Well, while technological superiority is great. Sheer numbers is quite a powerful force as well. People are quite happy to squish a bee. But would you dare go and shake up the hive.

I disagree with you. Yes the US is too tied up for a real war, but China and the US will NEVER fight a real war. The US never envisioned manpower as key to defending Taiwan but the threat of US air and naval power. Bases in Okinawa and Guam were originally envision to protect South Korea and Taiwan. Chinese planners know that theres B-52s at Guam as a strategic buffer to China in a sense and B-2s would probably operate from Guam as well if they needed to. And Chinas new jet is not some technological marvel its been well known since 1995. Its purported to be the equivalent of latest F-16 block series. And Taiwan has their own modified native copies of F-16s.

Yes China is evening the technological edge that Taiwan has over China. But China isnt there yet, they J-10 or whatever it is called is just entering service. I'm sure Chinawhite can make claims about Chinas stealth ships in its Navy but Chinas military is still catching up in the technological front. Because increased relationship with the US and pressuring the US to refuse selling weapons to Taiwan giving it an edge. Like the AEGIS...which Taiwan wants and which would make it a priority for China's forces to target as it could make any invasion a nightmare. The reason Japan acquired them.

But also Taiwan's economy is intergral to the economies of Japan and South Korea which are all reliant on eachother. And then China, Japan, and the US. So China will never go to war with Taiwan unless it knows it can scare the government of Taiwan into reunifying but Taiwan wont and there is no way China can take Taiwan within say less than a day before the global community can respond. And China wont risk military engagement with the US as it has forces positioned all around its coast.