an alarming conflict started in November between the PRC and #Japan over #Taiwan. #China #politics
on 02026-04-25#news #video #toread about #China building floating piers, perhaps to invade #Taiwan using roll-on roll-off ferries for heavy equipment transport without needing to capture a port first
on 02025-05-15the resolution replacing #Taiwan with the People’s Republic of #China in the UN in 01971. #history #politics
on 02025-04-30#news #video with Kishore Mahbubani saying that #Taiwan is the issue most likely to cause a war between #USA and #China at 18'26" in an #interview with #Al-Jazeera. #politics
on 02025-04-23#news #video speculating that #China will invade #Taiwan now that they don’t have to worry about losing trade with the #USA, having already lost it to the #Trump #tariffs. Points out that Chinese imports from the US are easily replaceable things like soybeans, unlike fine chemicals and microchips. #politics
on 02025-04-12#video #news on #PRC surrounding #Taiwan with ships in “surprise military drills”. #politics
on 02025-04-01#video on semiconductor manufacturing in #China and #USA. Footage of #Trump saying the CHIPS act was a “terrible, terrible thing” and “We should get rid of the chip act”. #ASML’s biggest market is now Mainland China rather than #Taiwan, selling US$10.9 billion per year there, and they’re opening a reuse-and-repair center in Beijing. The US had pulled ahead in Q4, but that was because of the #CHIPS-Act. #Ant-Group is using chips made by Alibaba and Huawei instead of NVIDIA to train their MoE #AI models.
on 02025-03-28#video claiming #China’s Xi has ordered the military to be able to invade #Taiwan by 02027. #politics
on 02025-02-12#video #interview with #Palmer-Luckey from 02023 (though released only three months ago) about #Anduril and other #weaponry, a foursome by Erik Torenberg ("Upstream" on the podcast network "Turpentine") with someone from #Varda. Lots of belligerent rhetoric attacking #China, proposing “defector visas” and citizenship under the illusion that many people are desperate to leave China. Luckey proposes that the PRC might blockade #Taiwan as a way to force capitulation to reunification without shooting. Describes Chinese immigrants to the US as “traitors to their country”, approvingly.
on 02025-01-30#Taiwan #economics #history: US$23k GDP per capita in 01997, US$53k per capita in 02022 (in 02011 dollars)
on 02024-12-15#video of a debate betwen #Al-Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan and Victor Gao, diplomat for #China and former interpreter for Deng Xiaoping, describing Chinese military policies, including the proposal to expel people of Japanese descent from #Taiwan if they refuse to pledge loyalty to the PRC. Also speaking are Stephen Chan, Martin Jacques, and Rayhan Asat (a Uighur whose brother was forcibly disappeared eight years ago). Extremely tough criticism of the PRC’s policies. Hasan really demolishes Gao’s position, but interestingly the headline question of whether China is “on a path to war” is barely touched on. The things Gao admits are even more interesting than the things he denies.
on 02024-12-05#video of a panel discussion (or maybe series of prepared monologues) among #USA military experts on #China, starting with the Century of Humiliation, showing the Map of National Humiliation (or Shame) from 01938, likening Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative to the Ming Treasure Fleet of Zheng He. “The capability gap [between the Chinese and US military] is rapidly shrinking, both in the air domain and in the space domain. Given a little bit more time, it’s plausible that the PLAAF will outstrip the USAF in terms of numbers.” Also: “#SpaceX has dramatically reduced the cost of launch,” mentioning the “commercial augmentation space reserve,” similar to the Civilian Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). There are 6500 Starlink satellites out of 7000 total US satellites. “The first law of war is to preserve yourself and destroy your enemy.” —Mao. Predictions that the South China Sea will be a bigger flashpoint than #Taiwan because Taiwan isn’t a US treaty ally. Chinese anti-ship missiles have been combat-tested by the Houthis against international shipping in the Red Sea; they work. Panelists believe that displacing the US dollar with a new international reserve currency (based on a basket) is the biggest threat from BRICS, and could insulate the PRC from the US’s ability to “impose sanctions as an instrument of national power”. A recommendation to watch Chinese movies Wolf Warrior I and Wolf Warrior II, after which Xi’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” are named, to understand how the Chinese see a potential conflict with the US. Discusses the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO), a “wannabe equivalent to NATO”. “10 years ago there were like 6–7000 PLA soldiers [in UN peacekeeping missions] around the world, especially in Africa. (...) It has gone down.”
on 02024-11-27#China Press Statement from #USA department of State: “The United States is seriously concerned by the People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around #Taiwan. The PRC response with military provocations to a routine annual speech is unwarranted and risks escalation.
We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, which is essential to regional peace and prosperity and a matter of international concern. We continue to monitor PRC activities and coordinate with allies and partners regarding our shared concerns.
The United States remains committed to its longstanding one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiqués, and the Six Assurances.”
on 02024-11-24“The U.S. is gravely concerned about #China’s ambitions in Taiwan, with the U.S. Commerce Secretary proclaiming that a Chinese seizure of TSMC would devastate the American economy. This has progressed to the point that #TSMC’s #Taiwan fabs are equipped with remote self-destruct functions in case of any hostile invasion.” #politics
on 02024-09-27#video from three days ago about #Anduril’s Barracuda cruise missile #weaponry #drones. #Palmer-Luckey describes #China as an “expansionist dictatorship” and claims that Anduril’s autonomous drones in #Ukraine have been crucial to destroying Russian hardware. He pronounces it ['ænd ɚ ,ɪl]. “I don't think the United States needs to be the world police. We need to be the world gun store. (...) Ukraine has really exposed this weakness in the United States' foreign policy strategy, where we say we support all of these people, but they look and say, ‘They can’t even manufacture the basics, like artillery shells or, you know, small missiles.’” They just raised money on a US$14 billion valuation to build “Arsenal One, a five million square foot factory that we’re building”. Refuses to comment on possible deployments in Israel, but says, “We have a very strong relationship with #Taiwan,” and says Anduril was recently sanctioned by the CPC.
on 02024-09-16#Taiwan #politics #gun-control #history: indigenous hunter Tama Talum Suqluman was pardoned by Tsai Ing-Wen in 02021 after being convicted for using a factory-made gun to hunt instead of a homemade one, and the Council of Grand Justices overturned that legal prohibition.
on 02024-04-29#VICE homemade guns of #Taiwan #video includes Tsai Ing-Wen’s 02016 apology to the indigenous Taiwanese peoples and Tama Talum Suqluman’s prosecution. Indigenous hunters have an exception to the general #gun-control prohibition in Taiwan, as long as they make the guns themselves. Much footage of colorful Taiwanese clothing. “It was in the 80s that the government told us to hand in the guns for safekeeping, and we never got them back.” They’re using nail-gun powder cartridges to drive ball bearings. Covers Tsai’s pardon of Talum. #mechanical #politics #history
on 02024-04-06#politics story about how the government of #Taiwan got a photo op with some US state legislators who passed resolutions in Taiwan’s favor; depressing to think it might have raised false hopes among Taiwan’s voters
on 02020-05-24