Llew wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:14 am Tangential, but I'm more concerned what we'll do if the PRC attempts to take Taiwan by force, given our longstanding commitments with (and bases in) the ROC.
Yes, the PRC has the largest navy in the world.
A growing chorus of officials and experts in the United States has been raising alarm about the risk of a Chinese attack against Taiwan. Adm. Philip S. Davidson, the United States Indo-Pacific commander, recently handicapped the threat of a Chinese assault on Taiwan as "manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years." China is preparing to invade and unify Taiwan by force, the thinking goes, as soon as it gains the capabilities to do so.
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/08/98452452 ... ver-taiwanChina is marshaling its full range of capabilities to intensify pressure on Taiwan below the threshold of conflict. People's Liberation Army forces now operate all around Taiwan. They also have been conducting highly publicized amphibious assault exercises and air penetrations of Taiwan's air defense identification zone at the highest frequency in nearly 25 years.
Contributing to Beijing's unfriendly treatment of Taiwan was its perception that the Trump administration showed stronger support for the island's government, thus reducing any incentive that Taipei had to submit to its demands. Trump officials took initiatives mainly in the diplomatic and security realms, and they did buoy Taiwan's confidence. The Biden administration has shown broad continuity in support for Taiwan during its first months.
The PRC's brutal suppression of rights in Hong Kong in violation of their treaty with Britain, is an example to the world that they can't be trusted. I expect the Biden administration will enhance relations with Taiwan short of full diplomatic relations. If Taiwan abandoned the fiction of being the ROC long ago, it could have declared itself an independent nation and established diplomatic relations.