Q: The U.S sells arms to Taiwan: Good or Bad?
China is crying about it and says it will hurt relations. I'm sure the U.S thought of this before they took the cash. It's not the first time but this time it's a billion dollar deal. Should China mind it's own or do they have a right to be upset and a reason to be worried?
great for taiwen they do not want to lose their freedoms and rights great for the usa, if this civil war turns hot i hope this means we will not be the idiots fighting and dieing while taiwanese men hangout in bars drinking and chasing tail no more vietnams no more iraqs or afghans
Taiwan and China will eventually be reunified. This is inevitable. But Taiwan needs to maintain a comparable level of military strength so it can come to negotiations with a favorable position. If Taiwan is weak then China could just put a blockade on the island until they surrender.
I believe Machiavelli said it best. "For among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised."
If Taiwan does decide to seek reunification, it'll be on the condition of partial autonomy similar to Macau and Hong Kong. So yes, good for Taiwan, embarrassing for China, and doesn't really mean anything for the US. All that money from the weapons sale will go to defense industries and not the US government.
I think it's great, China has no problems selling arms to enemies of the western countries and supports countries like north Korea .. screw them, sell Taiwan whatever they want ...
I think it is less about a strategic alliance now and more about keeping the military Industrial complex happy. After all, they are the biggest arms dealer in the world...big business.
Lots of high paying jobs and very little outsourcing.
It's good for the USA. In order to create jobs, USA needs to sell arms to make money so this is one of the ways to creating wealth resource!.
Njord:
I think you give China to much credit... IMHO, the world is heading down a slippery slope at the moment (not Armageddon or end of days type slope just BAD I think much worse than the depression of the 30's and on a HUGE global scale) having said that 90% of China's jobs and economy rely on export, production/manufacturing for export... So when the shit really, and I mean REALLY hits the proverbial fan China will also be the most screwed as it has accomplished less for it's masses (and their masses dwarf any other countries population) they have crappy infrastructure, social net, and the majority of their population live on the edge. Compared to Western countries or other Asian countries (like Japan, Taiwan, S.Korea) China will be hurt the worst, I think this also explains why they have beefed up their internal security 100 fold and military, they see the writing in the sand and want to retain their grip on power... So the likely hood that China will be making anyone do anything is less than plausible as i think they're going to become the weakest player in the not to distant future.... China's rising simply happened to late... It's going to be a short lived fling.