If China invades Taiwan

[myata]

China unveiled "an integration plan" for Taiwanese who see their country as an independent democratic state. Of course his closest ally Putin also known as an accused war criminal under an international warrant has mastered puppeteering "integrations" in his quest to dominate Russia's neighbours.

Today China's Foreign Minister is going to see Putin, while Chinese fleet musters near Taiwan.

What will happen if at the height of his power Xi chooses to bet on the war, and formally joins the Axis of dictators, that it has been feeding covertly for a while now?

Essentially, collective West will have two options. The first one is the tried and familiar sitting on the fence, pouring good lofty words (by the ton and then), doing nothing and hoping that bad things will figure themselves out, somehow. This one can be named Clinton-Obama-Merkel (COM) realpolitik, complete with an annual vocal festival of singing "never again".

It will have its cute little umbrella of course, except everyone, the whole wide world will see how tiny and pathetic it is, in a rapidly changing world. The countries and leaders will seek patronage and protection, whoever and however could provide it, and at whatever price.

And the other... except: haven't we grown too cute, innocent, lazy, happy to the oblivion, for that one?

[Queenmandy85]

1 hour ago, myata said:

And the other... except: haven't we grown too cute, innocent, lazy, happy to the oblivion, for that one?

That is the option I would like to see you elaborate. Option one merely delays option 2. We lived through the option 1 scenario in 1936 -1939. Appeasement never works.

[myata]

41 minutes ago, Queenmandy85 said:

Appeasement never works.

This is a great point, of course. How many times has this wise phrase been repeated since? Has anyone seen it, appeasement of aggressive bullies and tyrants work, like ever? Is it even possible, theoretically, that it could work? Let's see:

There's a young, aspiring bully, rising. It demands from you something, and you give it no questions asked. It shows you its aggressive, bullying moves. And all you show in return is hesitation and apparent weakness and lack of will to act. So what would the result be, like always, 100 / 100? No, it works exactly as it should and have, always!

And then, we turn around and do it again! So what is the connection between repeating the right phrase ad boring infinitum and then, doing exactly the opposite in the reality? That can be an important, and what if the defining, us, question.

[Queenmandy85]

The only way to deal with a bully is to punch him in the nose with a baseball bat. If an Xi or Putin step over the line, we unleash nuclear hell on them. That certainty worked for Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan. As long as the American President is able to assure the Russians and the Chinese that crossing the line will result in the end of the world, we will continue to survive until the climate burns us all up.

“Hey, don’t be so gloomy. In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had murder treachery and intrigue. They produced Michelangelo, DaVinci and the renaissance. In Switzerland they had 500 years of brotherhood and peace. What did they produce? The cookoo clock. “ Orson Wells in the Third Man. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Queenmandy85

[SpankyMcFarland]

One person we certainly shouldn’t trust in this issue is Elon Musk. His extensive business interests in China already compromise him and on top of that he has repeatedly made pro-Beijing comments about Taiwan as well as favouring Russia in Ukraine. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/14/taiwan-elon-musk-china-comments-response-all-in-summit-los-angeles

At the very least some sort of investigation is merited. He is dangerous. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by SpankyMcFarland

[Nationalist]

14 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

One person we certainly shouldn’t trust in this issue is Elon Musk. His extensive business interests in China already compromise him and on top of that he has repeatedly made pro-Beijing comments about Taiwan as well as favouring Russia in Ukraine. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/14/taiwan-elon-musk-china-comments-response-all-in-summit-los-angeles

At the very least some sort of investigation is merited. He is dangerous. 

Because he has an opinion?

Pfft...

[myata]

5 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

Because he has an opinion?

I honestly don't know what it is.. but here's an idea. He cannot be dumb making it to where he is, but you see, with so many a lot of dough secretes something in some gland and causes the complex of greatness and then, the p*ss of greatness shoots straight into the brain and obscures all other thoughts. Happened countless times already. Ohoh.

[Nationalist]

1 minute ago, myata said:

I honestly don't know what it is.. but here's an idea. He cannot be dumb making it to where he is, but you see, with so many a lot of dough secretes something in some gland and causes the complex of greatness and then, the p*ss of greatness shoots straight into the brain and obscures all other thoughts. Happened countless times already. Ohoh.

Meh...the guy has an opinion. Its only "dangerous" if one disagrees with his opinion and even then...its still just an opinion.

IMO...the Russia/Ukraine war should have been negotiated a long time ago and the killing stopped. That didn't happen and so I hold onto that opinion.

Opinions are like assh0les...everyone's got one. You...me...and Elon. We can have them. We can even voice them.

Then we can debate and squable about them.

But we cannot muzzle people. That cannot end well for anyone.

[myata]

2 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

Meh...the guy has an opinion. Its only "dangerous" if one disagrees with his opinion and even then...its still just an opinion.

Actually, not only an opinion. He admitted to turning off components of his satellite systems that affected the operations. And that just shows that he's volatile and cannot be trusted. Imagine at a critical moment a critical connection is lost or cannot be made.

6 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

But we cannot muzzle people.

Absolutely no "muzzling". Just staying away from the kind of stable geniuses is good enough for me.

[Nationalist]

1 hour ago, myata said:

I honestly don't know what it is.. but here's an idea. He cannot be dumb making it to where he is, but you see, with so many a lot of dough secretes something in some gland and causes the complex of greatness and then, the p*ss of greatness shoots straight into the brain and obscures all other thoughts. Happened countless times already. Ohoh.

It's called "power".