Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) has said that a congressional war game that simulated a Chinese invasion of Taiwan shows that the US must arm Taiwan “to the teeth.”
Gallagher is the head of the House’s new panel on China, which participated in the war game on Wednesday evening, a highly unusual move by members of Congress that demonstrates the US government is preparing for a future war with Beijing.
“We are well within the window of maximum danger for a Chinese Communist Party invasion of Taiwan, and yesterday’s war game stressed the need to take action to deter CCP aggression and arm Taiwan to the teeth before any crisis begins,” Gallagher said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The war game was conducted with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a hawkish think tank that receives funding from US arms makers and the Taiwanese government through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy.
A source close to the China committee told Reuters that the war game’s conclusions were that a US-China fight over Taiwan would result in high US losses, the depletion of long-range missiles, and would leave global markets in “absolute tatters.”
Gallagher and other China hawks insist increasing support for Taiwan will prevent a Chinese attack. But Beijing has only put Taiwan under more military pressure in response to the growing military and diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei.
Inhale………Exhale……….Inhale again………………………….Exhale.
I’m not willing to get my beautiful a– nuked for some stupid brain addled Republican REP.
Or the Democrats for that matter.
There’s a difference?..
Uniparty, both sides are all in on war.
Culture wars.
I would hate that too.
Would it be appropriate to ask the people living on Taiwan about whether they wish to be armed to the teeth? Or shall we just assume that they are willing to die for the good of their imperial rulers like their counterparts in Ukraine?
In the last election, the leader’s party was defeated soundly and she stepped down as party head in shame. The people voted for parties focusing on local issues like pollution and infrastructure. What people want is really not a consideration, I’d say.
Here’s a comment from one person in Taiwan under a Lee Camp video:
“The people” don’t matter there, … or here.
Another beltway imbecile speaks.
China will eventually reunite with Taiwan, maybe peacefully. Surely many on Taiwan would prefer that over hosting a shootout with the US. China, with a 1.4 billion people China could lose a million soldiers taking Taiwan and never miss them. The US would lose most of the fleet in that area which would be missed.
Prohibit campaign contributions to politicians by the Military/Industrial Complex and the warmongering by the recipients would lessen.
Absolutely … we must arm China against China, or China might win against China, and where would we be then?
Increase funding for Diplomacy instead of Weaponry.
And your teeth should be knocked out of your mouth for ever…!
So the video game let the neocon warmonger know that Taiwan needs more arms if it wants to be able to repel the #2 most populated nation on the earth if it decides to invade?
How much did that cost us for that profundity?
It’s budget time in Washington and the politicians are making their cases for where Uncle Sugar will spread the goodies to.
Impending invasion by the current boogyman (real or imagined) is a tried and true method of getting yours.
The US can arm Taiwan to the teeth it won`t help , just like the Ukraine who don`t have the infantry to defeat Russia , Taiwan does not have the infantry to defeat China , Infantry win wars .
Yes, the ROC army is just an empty shell of untrained people . . . also unmotivated because the US will protect them (they believe).
It’s a little like putting oneself between a mother Grizzly and her young cubs. No matter how big and bad we think we are we do not have the incentive that China has when it comes to Taiwan. It’s also a little like Russia and Ukraine where Russia is fighting for her very existence because Russia knows that if we ever get the upper hand its curtains foe them. So let’s stop listening to those clowns in the US government and NATO because there is only one option, stop with the BS and stop with the war mongering, there will be no war because if there were to be a third big war there is no future.
War isn’t a game, arschwipe.
For them, it is. It’s ALL theater. Sometimes deadly theater, but none of the game itself is real.
Warmongering piece of shit.
All in a desperate scramble to try to maintain the vassals of the fading American Empire. They don’t care how many of us have to give our lives to maintain their hegemony.
Arms shipments to a renegade China province would violate the UN Charter which states that all national governments are sovereign. So the House wants it to be clear that the enemy to be armed against is not China, it’s a political party, and China doesn’t exist.
…from the web
. . .from the web on the US House of Representatives[sic]
“The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party is committed to working on a bipartisan basis to build consensus on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party and develop a plan of action to defend the American people, our economy, and our values.” . .here
Those Yale Law apparatchiks are admirably punctilious in re ‘the law’.
“… the island of Taiwan has been associated with China for many millennia. The indigenous peoples of Taiwan have interacted with Chinese traders, merchants, and settlers for centuries, and various Chinese dynasties had varying levels of influence on the island over time.
In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a trading post on the island and attempted to monopolize the trade with China, but they were eventually expelled by the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong, also known as Koxinga.
Following Koxinga’s death, the Qing dynasty took control of Taiwan and ruled over it for the next two centuries. During this time, Chinese influence on the island continued to grow, and many Han Chinese migrated to Taiwan, gradually becoming the majority population.
In the late 19th century, Taiwan was ceded to Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War. During the Japanese colonial period, Japanese influence on the island was significant, but Chinese culture and traditions continued to be practiced and preserved by the local population.
After World War II, Taiwan was returned to China, but the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, who had fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War, established a separate government on the island and ruled it as the Republic of China.
Since then, Taiwan has developed its own unique identity, with a blend of indigenous, Chinese, and Japanese influences, and has become a vibrant democracy with a strong economy and rich cultural heritage.”
Very nice precis. Thanks
re: ” [Taiwan][ has become a vibrant democracy” . . .like the US?. . .hah
…from Brookings, Jan 2021
I asked chatGPT for a short summary of Taiwanese history.
ChatGPT has a bit of a Western political bias, and its first response gave short shrift to most of Taiwan’s Chinese character. I admonished it, pointed out its bias, and asked it to try again. It apologized (yes, really), and this is what it came up with. You can still detect the bias … in particular that little ‘vibrant democracy’ bit at the end.
There are now two dominant political factions on Taiwan, the modern version of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kumantong party (KMT), which was on the losing end of the Civil War with Mao, and which retreated to Taiwan and took over. (Rather brutally, but that’s ancient history.) Oddly enough, the current KMT favors reunification.
The other political faction is the Taiwan Independence Party also known as the Taiwan Nation Party, which as the name implies, favors independence.
With the end of the Soviet Union, the triumphalist Project for the New American Century emerged and established the “Wolfowitz Doctrine” as the centerpiece of US foreign policy: “No peer competitor to the US will ever be allowed to rise and challenge US dominance.”
I would guess that in typical Neocon fashion — the Neocons are currently in charge of American foreign policy — the Neocons have been actively provoking a US war with China by promoting the Taiwan independence effort: “Driving a wedge”, “Color revolutions”, “democracy promotion”, etc.
No matter the speed of current events, I would remind the reader that it was only a few short years ago that the relationship between China and Taiwan and the United States was all sweetness and light. Everyone was happy, business was booming, and the clouds of war were nowhere to be seen. The Chinese government wasn’t threatening to invade Taiwan. Quite the contrary, they had a reunification plan — a peaceful and mutually-voluntary unification plan — with a patient and gradual 2045 completion date.
What a change a US election and a newly installed Neocon-dominated administration can make! Now it’s a full-throated war cry — “War with China” — blasting from the halls of Congress with every media organ shrieking the Neocon war cry.
But Blinken, Nuland, Sullivan et al best get their war going promptly, because the sell-by date is rapidly approaching. The next election on Taiwan is scheduled for January 13, 2024, less than nine months away. And while no one can know for sure what the future holds, I suspect that the Taiwanese aren’t enthusiastic about becoming the next Ukraine just so America can fail yet again in its attempt to remain the global hegemon. Quite the contrary, in light of the Middle Kingdom’s trajectory to become the next dominant global power, the Taiwanese might very well choose to reject the Neocon war plan and put the KMT back in charge.
We shall see.
The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous.
Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia.
What if US exports all its super tech weapons to Taiwan and they turn them all over to China?
The US government is offering increased military support to a renegade province which has declared independence in violation of US policy, and this behavior supports a new war.
Taiwan
Jan 18, 2020 — Taiwan’s “President” Tsai Ing-wen: “We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China (Taiwan), and we have our own system of running the country, and we do have a government and we have a military, and we have elections, like the presidential elections that you have witnessed.” . .here
State Department
We do not support Taiwan independence. . .here
China
Jan 28, 2021 — ‘Taiwan independence means war’: China’s defence ministry warns Biden against siding with Taipei
What do the Taiwanese think about this?
Mr. Gallagher, shut up.
Ever saw ladies who in their later years still wesr hairdos and othes of their youth? Trying to keep forever the happiness of days long gone by? Our politicians are just like it. Even started calling China “communist party”, recalling the glory days when “communist” label was the ticket to winning the Cold War.
But times have changed and our politicians do not see it.
In China, fast rail, roads dedicated to driverless vehicles vehicles. In a one-two punch China replaced all American network platforms giving CISCO run for its money, and unweiled an amazing electric vehicle undercutting Tesla. And for $11,000 price tag. The world is lining up to buy networks gear, infrastructure, robotics and cars at the price they can afford. Will they care for communist label?
In the meantime, Xi is ghosting Biden/Blinken team. And quickly German and French presidents are dispatched to feel the waters, Both received with top honors. Both not quite getting it. Any disrespectful mouthing off, any unfriendly move — and they will be ghosted too.
Message? China has no time to waste on unproductive relatiinships.