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On July 4th the Wall Street Journal headlined “My Plan to Preserve Peace Between China and Taiwan”, and Taiwan’s Presidential candidate from the leading Party, Taiwan’s current Vice President, Mr. Lai Ching-te, promised Taiwan’s voters that if they elect him President, he will beef up military spending to buy enough weapons from the U.S. so that if Taiwan declares independence from China, then China will be too afraid of Taiwans’ military to invade Taiwan and to take forceful control over that island province of China.
V.P. Lai presented China as being Taiwan’s enemy, and said
“President Xi Jinping has quashed dissent in Hong Kong, established ‘re-education’ centers in Xinjiang, fomented conflict in the South China Sea, and stepped up military adventurism across the Taiwan Strait.”
His plan to scare China’s Government to accept a breakaway of the Chinese province of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland is:
First, we must build up Taiwan’s deterrence. Defense is the bedrock of our national security. Under President Tsai Ing-wen, we have increased defense budgets, reformed conscription and the reserve system, and supported new practices and capabilities within our military. These measures reduce the risk of armed conflict by raising the stakes and costs for Beijing. I will also expedite our transition into an asymmetric fighting force, focusing on cost-effective and mobile capabilities. I will seek greater cooperation with partners and allies, particularly in training, force restructuring, civil defense and information sharing.
Second, economic security is national security. In the years since democratization, Taiwan has become a high-tech powerhouse. As a former mayor of Tainan, I am proud to see semiconductors made both in the city and around Taiwan driving the next generation of technology. As premier, I spearheaded efforts to increase salaries, cut taxes and attract new investment. …
The third pillar is based on forming partnerships with democracies around the world. This year Taiwan sent the first medical team from Asia to Ukraine, assisting war-wounded personnel and residents. Record numbers of parliamentarians, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks and official delegations have visited Taiwan, showing that despite Communist Party pressure, we do not stand alone.
China’s Government has consistently maintained that if Taiwan tries to break away from China and to become a separate and independent nation, then China will forcibly reverse that, and will try to do it without destroying Taiwan. However, if Taiwan arms itself sufficiently so as to become difficult to conquer militarily, then there will obviously be little left of Taiwan at the end of that conflict. No military analysts — not even in the U.S., which is trying to break Taiwan off from China so as to make it yet another U.S. ‘ally’ against China — doubts that, regardless of how much the U.S. arms Taiwan, China would win that war.
For China, this is simply an existential matter, and China has never wavered that Taiwan is and will remain a part of China, and that China won’t tolerate any breakaway of Taiwan from China.
Consequently, it the U.S. stooge candidate for Taiwan’s Presidency becomes elected, then there will be war between Taiwan’s self-proclaimed government versus China, regardless of whether or not that will also entail war between China and the United States. However, if it would be war between China and the United States, then that will likely be, or quickly become, a nuclear war.
In any case, Mr. Lai’s promise to Taiwan’s voters, that he is the ‘peace’ candidate in the election, might indicate that he despises the intelligence of Taiwan’s voters. In that sense, it might be something of a very practical intelligence-test of the residents of Taiwan. Consequently, its results will be interesting even to some people who might not otherwise be particularly interested in Taiwanese affairs.
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This article was originally published on The Duran.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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