Pete Hegseth: US will go to war to stop China from taking Taiwan

[fatfat]

Not wanting to get into politics here, but Hong Kong was only held by the UK on a 99 year lease which expired in 1997. It most definitely was not a case of "not defending it any more". Legally it had to be returned. The only thing up for debate was the details of how the transition was managed. There is no parallel to the Taiwan situation here.

There were there parts of Hong Kong - Hong Kong island, Kowloon, and the New Terrorities. Only the later two were subject to 99 year lease. Hong Kong island was ceded to UK permanently. Legally they didn't need to return the Hong Kong island, but it was too hard to defend the island and they negotiated a 50-year agreement to keep capitalist system instead.

 

[fatfat]

A lot of people in Taiwan do not believe US will assist Taiwan and the gap in terms of military capabilities is too large for Taiwan to defence itself. What they want is peaceful resolution. I don't think TSM is helping here.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1932987210632138866

In '19 the same youtuber talked about China wanna pay him 330k USD sign-up fee and 50k USD monthly fee for him to stand with their side.
Probably he decided to take the money this year, i.e. his point of view in the video is from Chinese gov't instead of his own.

 

[XYang2023]

In '19 the same youtuber talked about China wanna pay him 330k USD sign-up fee and 50k USD monthly fee for him to stand with their side.
Probably he decided to take the money this year, i.e. his point of view in the video is from Chinese gov't instead of his own.

It doesn't really matter who pays him. He is a proxy of a portion of population.

 

[XYang2023]

Just to add some colour:

Taiwan’s former presidential candidate Ko Wen-je charged with bribery

Ko is the second major politician to face anti-graft investigations and charges since President Lai Ching-te took power in May 2024.

www.wsws.org

 

[msek59]

I remember practicing hiding under our desks in elementary school in case Russia bombed us. We built pretend fallout shelters. Seriously, this was in the 1960s and we were all pretty scared. This was in California by the way, not Kansas. Baby boomers, am I right?

Thanks Dan - memories of that training, of knowing the routes into the school basement, are still vivid.

 

[tooLongInEDA]

It doesn't really matter who pays him. He is a proxy of a portion of population.

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Come on. We're mainly engineers here. Opinions should be checked and derated accordingly for known vested interests.

 

[benb]

The US has a permanent garrison in South Korea and in Japan, but not TW. This situation has existed for a long time. It is a bit like a bullfighter waving a flag at a bull, encouraging it to run at TW (not JP or Korea). It may be a bit of a trap. Or perhaps, TW is the battleground that the Pacific allies deliberately chose. A war in the Straits could be a somewhat more contained war, less likely to become nuclear.

Another message: Sent from Trump to Canada: Get a military that could defend the USA invading. Canada is one of the worst free riders in NATO. A stronger Canada could also boost Pacific defense.

And the most obvious message, from Hegseth to European powers: You will soon be on your own with Russia. Providing incentives for Europeans to increase defense spending so the USA can focus on the Pacific.

All this architecture existed long before TSMC. Is there a key semiconductor technology in a DJI drone, that might be the balance of power (ie TSMC makes it, China or USA controls it, and that determines the wars outcome)? It seems plausible. It would be ironic if TW was unaware of it and continued to supply it to CCP, arming their enemy.