Pilkerton's Prognostications

This blog contains some of my past articles for the school newspaper and other musings I feel like posting. Beware liberals!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

China and Tiawan: Gearing up for WW3

(3/16/05)

The world is starting to get interesting again, with the waters receding in Indonesia and Iraq steadily improving, things were starting to get a bit stale for this columnist. A few days ago, I feared I might have to write some horrible local interest piece about the construction or traffic on campus but alas, not today, good friends. Our Communist friends in China have bailed me out of certain mediocrity and this one's a blue-chipper.
The blossoming democratic process in Taiwan has led to the idea of Taiwan officially becoming an independent nation.
The folks in China aren't too keen on the idea of their old turf going Democratic. Taiwan split from China ideologically and politically in 1949 after the Chinese civil war and ever since has pursued a democratic means of governing and it is now a prosperous and industrialized little country. China still sees Taiwan as part of its mainland territory and thinks the little country that could is getting a bit big for its britches and consequently China thinks it might be time to take them back and reconstitute Taiwan in to China.
The Chinese 'President' recently told its military to be ready for action in Taiwan, this proclamation came after the figurehead Chinese Parliament passed what is considered to be a unilateral go ahead for invasion of Taiwan. While the good citizens of China toil away making a tremendous percentage of the world's flea market and dollar store goods we must remember that China is still a Communist State and the prospect of Democracy winning over a country on its own soil doesn't make the government look great to its own people.
I perceive this call to arms to be a bit of good old fashioned posturing, using their military muscle to coerce the little guy in to giving up before any blood is drawn. The intolerably timid European Union is soon going to vote on a resolution lifting the weapons trade embargo with China. The United States is trying to convince the EU that lifting the embargo is a bad idea for everyone due to China's secretive history and unclear motives, specifically with respect to the situation or impending situation with Taiwan.
I must admit that the prospect of World War III breaking out over little Taiwan makes me salivate because part of me thinks it would be an honor to witness the end times, but I digress.
The possibility of this situation turning in to a world war is real, but unlikely at best.
Whether we like it or not, our military is overextended and the prospect of fighting a country as large as China is daunting to say the least. In reality, the Chinese military isn't nearly as advanced as ours, but the size alone (2 million soldiers) is enough to make us think twice about duking it out with General Tso and friends.
China knows that we have resigned ourselves as the defenders of freedom and democracy so they?d have to deal with us as well as our hanger-on allies that would be there to go through the motions in order to receive their piece of the global welfare checks we distribute around the world. The notion of Communist China invading a small democracy like Taiwan would most likely garner criticism from most of the civilized world and hence, pressure China to rescind its proclamation and allow Taiwan to continue on the path of its choosing.
This is what logic presents, but with the state of diplomacy around the world in flux and with the name of the United States being shat upon by those we formerly allied ourselves with the outcome of such a move by China might surprise us with regard to who would be on our side, who would be on China's side and who would abstain from choosing.
Obviously, the potential conflict with Taiwan goes deeper than China's hurt feelings that they want to finalize the divorce: Taiwan is industrialized and has an excellent relationship with the West and it is evident in the strong economy it possesses. China would love to bolster its economic standing in the world by adding Taiwanese products to its list of exports. The United States realizes this and most likely the economic shift is what is more alarming than the ideological influence of Communism, America must protect its financial and trade interests. The United States as well as certain European nations have a large stake in the progress of Taiwan and the prospect of China coming in and taking those interests over will not be something the US and Europe will take very kindly to and it is this that will spark war.
The moral of this little piece is that we no longer know who our friends are anymore, Europe is bitter and angry over our influence and power, the same power they once held before destroying themselves in the two previous World Wars and who knows exactly what Putin and his gang of fascists are doing over in Russia. We find ourselves as the protectors of all democracy in the world and that means more than fighting ideological wars, it means protecting the rights of citizens in those democracies, especially when it comes to financial and technological interests.
China might see our current situation in Iraq as a weakness and an opening for them to push us further than they otherwise would. We will need to reconcile that situation before making any decision in regard to Taiwan and China. That's the way things go in the world and at the end of the day the albatross of freedom hangs heavily around our neck, friends.

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