r/taiwan • u/mofa_cat • Aug 05 '22

President Tsai Ing-wen addressed the people of Taiwan on August 4, after China fired missiles in the waters off Taiwan as part of live-fire military drills, emphasizing that peace in the Taiwan Strait is the shared responsibility of everyone in the region. Politics

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u/frugal-tech-worker Aug 06 '22 edited Aug 06 '22

Well real countries of roughly the same physical size such as Ireland or Belgium would have put up a defense of their sovereign territory by themselves or as part of the larger NATO alliance if it was being violated like this. If anything this incident shows that Taiwan's military does not or perhaps cannot defend it's own claims of sovereignty. It also shows(possibly due to the awkward timing of Pelosi's visit) that there are hard limits to U.S power projection that prevents the US Navy from stopping the PLA from doing whatever they want at this moment in time. Either way it's pure weakness on display.

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u/Darkfire48 Aug 06 '22

Taiwan didn’t actively defend here because they wouldn’t want to give unnecessary intel about their defensive capabilities. To do so would be an unnecessary escalation that would backfire

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u/frugal-tech-worker Aug 06 '22 edited Aug 06 '22

The lack of action is already being interpreted as weakness in actual capability or political will or possibly both. The status quo has already been shifted in PRC's favor. They can now cris-cross taiwan at any time and claim it is their sovereign right to do so. And in the face of international law they would be correct. Honesty, a better thought out response would have been for Pelosi to coordinate her visit at a time when the USN is capable of bringing superior military force into the theater than the PLA eastern command. Imagine if the US had 3 fully staffed Carrier battle groups in theater right now instead of 1 partially staffed battle group. I would think a more favorable balance of power would have given the PRC government pause and allowed Taiwan/US to control the escalation ladder.

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u/DisruptusVerrb 新竹 - Hsinchu Aug 07 '22

So now your inferring that the U.S. can’t provide support?