<p>Where does everyone stand on this? Does China have the right to take back Taiwan? If/when they attempt to, should the US intervene to stop it?</p>
<p>I think China has no right to take back Taiwan and when they try the US should blockade the invading ships using our forces that are stationed in Japan.</p>
<p>Taiwan technically never declared itself as independent. If Taiwan does try to become independent, China should have the right to invade. This situation will be similar to the civil war in the United States, where the South tried to become independent. In addition, I don't think the U.S. will get involved in this. They have better things to worry about and causing a potential war against China will be a horrible decision.</p>
<p>I personally believe Taiwan is a still a part of China. There is no reason why, if Taiwan declares itself independent, mainland China cannot take Taiwan back, even if force is necessary.</p>
<p>In my mind, China-Taiwan is one of those potential World War III hotspots (the others being India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, United States/Japan/South Korea and North Korea, and Saudi Arabia).</p>
<p>The current policy is one of status quo. We're just hoping that China follows the trend that no Communist nation lasts over 70 years and a democratic People's Republic and Taiwan can re-unite.</p>
<p>I'm not much for politics and no basically nothing about this situation, but here it goes: America would be dumb to stop China</p>
<p>a.) Why start a war with the most heavily populated country in the world?<br>
b.) America is not really worried about communism anymore. (As mentioned above, it doesn't work.)<br>
c.) We'd basically be admitting that the North's actions in the civil war were unjustified.<br>
d.) Why start another foreign war that will almost undoubtedly not be popular? (Haven't we learned anything from Iraq?
e.) and finally, do we have some sort of invested interest in Taiwan? They make rubber, wow. If we're looking to save some American business's there, then maybe we should take a step back and look at how us Americans are actually treating the laborors of Taiwan (its practically slavery or, at the very least, a more oppressive version of England's Industrial Revolution.) Rubber vs. nukes... which do you care more about?</p>
<p>BigE1508: I'm not trying to start a debate or anything, but I think you misunderstood me. When I said that Chinese communism is slowly coming to an end, I meant that it's shifting more towards capitalism (very slowly, as mentioned before). For example, China is giving bonus money to farmers who produce more, all of my uncles on my dad's side are generally much better off financially than the average chinese person, and if you ever go back there, some streets are simply filled with marketplaces where the owners determine their own prices. Of course, there are still many communism-system rules in place, but they're slowly being replaced.</p>
<p>The key reason America is standing in the way (and this is really the only thing stopping them) of China taking Taiwan is because Taiwan is a democracy and China is a communist nation. Bush would be in a tough spot to talk about bringing democracy across the world and sit back if little democratic Taiwan was being invaded by its aggressive mainland neighbor. Thankfully, cooler minds have prevailed for the last 50 years and it doesn't seem like anyone's going to start bloodshed there now.</p>
<p>The most interesting thing with the "new China" experiment is that no Communist nation has every really made the way to become free economically but not socially, like what is happening now. If that's the case, it could be that China could hold off indefinitely (as the USSR fell not because the people were tired of oppression and single-party rule, but because the country was utterly bankrupt and thus unstable).</p>
<p>It's an addition here: Because a communist system is too flawed (Marx never incorporated social, religious, etc. aspects of society into his theory, only the economical aspect), China has two choices: fall as a communist nation like the USSR, or change. They've chosen the latter.</p>
<p>college here i come: your absolutely right and you make some very valid points, but i was more referring to someone's comment that it dies out after 70 years. Furthermore, America was so afraid of communism during the cold war because they thought it would become an international threat. In the past 50 years, we've learned that communists basically hate each other (take China and the USSR, for instance) which effectively blocks them from creating any sort of communist anti-capitalism alliance. </p>
<p>By the way, does a communist country like China hinder the economic productivity of a capitalist country like America in any way? (maybe someone with a solid economics background can answer this one for me because i have no idea.)</p>
<p>The fact that China is communist has no effect on the fact that it is destroying the US economy. China simply manages to offer cheap labor, which leads to US companies (eg Walmart) outsourcing to China, which in turn mass produces cheap products, and thereby reducing the demand of more expensive American-made products.</p>
<p>So in a nuclear scnerario between china vs usa; who would win? </p>
<p>Hm...MiG19 vs F-22 :)</p>
<p>Also, China may have more people, but they lack "weapons of mass destruction",lol. Even though they have nuclear weapons, who knows how many they can afford until they're all out. (Apparantly, Chinese are "cheap", they stopped their space program. Is there any use of sending a man to orbit? When this has already happened? )</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't China loaned millions (billions?) of dollars to the US government?</p>
<p>I doubt that China would actually follow through and use their nuclear weapons. While the US would be the most devestated by the bomb, the entire world would be affected by the radiation, including China. Also, keep in mind that the General quoted has even said himself that his views don't represent the official Chinese policy.</p>
<p>Hey, don't you think that the U.S would use its own arsenal? I mean, what would you do if you controlled a country that was bombed by a nuclear weapon?</p>
<p>Anyways....the point isn't about who kills each other faster...it's more about what will they/we think of each other incase of such scenario.....chinese concentration camps? </p>
<p>Also, since the U.S. had the atom bomb 60 years ago, I imagine that they have other more powerful crap. (that doesn't cause radiation :) )</p>
<p>Nuclear weapons that doesnt cause radiation...LMFAO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH</p>