Can't we look any better than a banana republic?

[gbmmbg]

13 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

How would you defend against a few hundred submarine drones?

Near field emp. When AEGIS first came online it confused the enemy by faking the size and place of the battle group. Anti missile "Missiles" work great in a 10 or below inbound. When you have 100 or 1000 with 5lb live loads comeing at you you you go NFE. You dont need to sink the ship,  just take out its ability to fight and 20 or 30 HEI drones will do that quite well.

[Freebie]

On 1/8/2024 at 8:38 PM, Avalon said:

Fortunately we don't have war risk here aside from the sabre rattling over Taiwan - which will return to China within a few years time without a shot being fired.

I think Sir, you dont know Taiwan, nor the Taiwanese, especially not in the south of the country.   Taiwan wont be giving up their country  , not for the Chinese. And they certainly wont be giving up their chip manufacturing to the Chinese.

[craftbeerlover]

On 1/8/2024 at 8:38 PM, Avalon said:

Fortunately we don't have war risk here aside from the sabre rattling over Taiwan - which will return to China within a few years time without a shot being fired.

The harassment of fishermen and Philippines military over the shoals and structures in the South China Sea is a concern but BBM has access to the Chinese leadership by virtue of his father's actions that no other President has had since and "should" be able to resolve this amicably.

Of course if we load up with US bases and the US chooses to start a war with China we are ground zero collateral damage - a Chinese Navy Admiral opined a few years ago that they always have a Dongfeng nuclear missile pointed at Subic Bay as there is always a US warship or submarine there.

interesting how you state opinions as facts

[Avalon]

9 hours ago, Freebie said:

I think Sir, you dont know Taiwan, nor the Taiwanese, especially not in the south of the country.   Taiwan wont be giving up their country  , not for the Chinese. And they certainly wont be giving up their chip manufacturing to the Chinese.

The Taiwanese are indeed an incredible people, to have achieved the economic and technological prowess they have in the last 50 years or so.  The problem however is it relies totally on maritime imports and exports and sitting just off the coast of China makes it vulnerable to a Chinese maritime blockade.

This is not just my opinion, it's been cited over and over in Washington think tanks and in the Pentagon - here's the opinion of the USN 7th Fleet Commander: 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/sep/20/us-pacific-fleet-commander-warns-expanding-chinese/

and a good analysis from Politico:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/09/america-weapons-china-00100373

I'm keen to see the outcome of the Taiwanese elections this weekend, no doubt Xi is too.

US military service levels are now at their lowest head count since 1940 as waves of recruitment drives fail to attract young men and women into service.  Materiel levels are worse with supplies exhausted from shipments to Ukraine and then Israel and minimal industrial capability to manufacture more stocks in the next few years.

Add to this US reliance on Chinese rare-earth minerals, pharmaceuticals and other key essentials and that a Chinese exit of US Treasuries and stocks would collapse US markets and it really does seem Xi holds the cards and is biding his time.

Let's see what eventuates - the Taiwanese are a resourceful and resilient people - but David doesn't always beat Goliath.

 

[Freebie]

I lived in Taiwan for a few years. Met Ma Ying Jeou several times ( the blue pro China president/ greens favour independence  ) They have a wonderful National Museum and I got to know the Director in my time there. It has a great many exhibits and 6 floors under the museum. These are are claimed by China as having been stolen by Taiwan when it broke away with Chiang Kai Shek.  Two floors of exhibits are the items that they dont show. And under that , are 4 floors of items that did indeed come from various Emperors collections from China. They will never be shown. They are locked and sealed and guarded  obviously. There are codes that should China stage any sort of invasion, these floors full of priceless treasures would be simply destroyed. They have fire prevention sprinklers and then another set of sprinklers containing something that would ( so I was told )  render the priceless treasure destroyed.

Taiwan is world famous for the quality of its chip making. China tried and couldnt get the level of perfection required. Philippines also tried with GemPhil and Cebu Microelectronics. DSMC has the secrets behind their chip manufacturing expertise. Again, should Taiwan be invaded DSMC would happily destroy the major components ( so I was informed by a govt minister there ) and /or remove the major components pre an invasion. Taiwan without its chip manufacturing capabilities isnt that attractive any more.

Taiwan knows it couldn't defend itself militarily but it is very clear on what China wants and by removing those , the attraction is less. I have many other similar stories ( their plans for Chiang Kai Shek  airport in the event ) again from what i was told  but I'll save those. 

Indeed David cant beat Goliath and would the world stand to fight for an island....well I guess that would depend on how valuable the chip industry was.

Plus Taiwan has huge reserves of foreign exchange and of gold too.  These are easily offloaded or destroyed.  If Winnie was so keen he might already have tried. But perhaps hes more realistic.

But at some point Winnie's time will be up. no one is around forever no matter how omnipotent he sees himself.  Anyways one of us will be right in time..lol. Interesting discussion .

 

 

[hk blues]

7 minutes ago, Freebie said:

I lived in Taiwan for a few years. Met Ma Ying Jeou several times ( the blue pro China president/ greens favour independence  ) They have a wonderful National Museum and I got to know the Director in my time there. It has a great many exhibits and 6 floors under the museum. These are are claimed by China as having been stolen by Taiwan when it broke away with Chiang Kai Shek.  Two floors of exhibits are the items that they dont show. And under that , are 4 floors of items that did indeed come from various Emperors collections from China. They will never be shown. They are locked and sealed and guarded  obviously. There are codes that should China stage any sort of invasion, these floors full of priceless treasures would be simply destroyed. They have fire prevention sprinklers and then another set of sprinklers containing something that would ( so I was told )  render the priceless treasure destroyed.

Taiwan is world famous for the quality of its chip making. China tried and couldnt get the level of perfection required. Philippines also tried with GemPhil and Cebu Microelectronics. DSMC has the secrets behind their chip manufacturing expertise. Again, should Taiwan be invaded DSMC would happily destroy the major components ( so I was informed by a govt minister there ) and /or remove the major components pre an invasion. Taiwan without its chip manufacturing capabilities isnt that attractive any more.

Taiwan knows it couldn't defend itself militarily but it is very clear on what China wants and by removing those , the attraction is less. I have many other similar stories ( their plans for Chiang Kai Shek  airport in the event ) again from what i was told  but I'll save those. 

Indeed David cant beat Goliath and would the world stand to fight for an island....well I guess that would depend on how valuable the chip industry was.

Plus Taiwan has huge reserves of foreign exchange and of gold too.  These are easily offloaded or destroyed.  If Winnie was so keen he might already have tried. But perhaps hes more realistic.

But at some point Winnie's time will be up. no one is around forever no matter how omnipotent he sees himself.  Anyways one of us will be right in time..lol. Interesting discussion .

It's all a bit James Bond'ish though, isn't it?

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

It's all a bit James Bond'ish though, isn't it?

 The Elgin Marbles springs to mind