PLA Strategy in a Taiwan Contingency

[siegecrossbow]

While 3.33% of GDP might not seem outrageous on the surface, it actually accounts about a one-third of Taiwan's tax revenue, very close to Russia's 30-40%

Taiwan's tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is very low, at only 13.2% in 2024. It is because their GDP calculation includes GDP generated by Taiwanese businesses in mainland China, effectively inflating it and the Taiwanese government cannot tax.

Some Americans' desire for military spending to account for 10% of GDP means that alomost all tax revenue would be allocated to military spending, which is completely foolish.

No wonder their per capita GDP is higher than Japan… I guess this is direct proof that Chinese people overinflated GDP figures.

 

[bsdnf]

Restarting the nuclear power plant is as landslide as recalling

But this will not help much for Taiwan's power redundancy.

 

[Luke Warmwar]

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The recall and power plant referendum both failed.

 

[gelgoog]

The recall and power plant referendum both failed.

The nuclear power plant referendum had 3 votes in favor of nuclear vs 1 against. It is just it did not get enough votes to be enforced.
But I think the people's opinion is clear.

 

[doggydogdo]

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In March, Lai warned of China's deepening influence in Taiwan's economy, culture, media, and even the government, and

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A number of Taiwanese soldiers and military officials have been jailed for allegedly spying on behalf of China. Members of the DPP – including a former aide to Lai – have also been charged with spying.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese celebrities friendly to China, social media influencers and Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens have come under close scrutiny, with some deported or forced to leave.
Lai has also backed a

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aimed at kicking out opposition politicians perceived as being too close to China.

'Lai is crazy in the way he talks to China'​

There are some signs of public support of the defence drive. The INDSR survey found more than half of Taiwanese approve of increasing defence spending, with even more supporting US weapons purchases.
But there is also unease. One view is that the defence drive and Lai's rhetoric are provoking China, which could lead to war.
"I feel China is very simple," says Ms Chen, the Kinmen shop assistant. "As long as you don't tell them you want independence, they won't do anything to you.
"But William Lai is crazy in the way he talks to China. It will stoke their fury. You never know, one day Xi Jinping may get very unhappy and attack us."
Polls consistently show that most Taiwanese people want the "status quo", meaning they neither want to unify with China, nor to formally declare independence.
The political opposition, dominated by the Kuomintang (KMT) party, accuses the DPP government of using the prospect of a Chinese invasion to fearmonger so it can gain political support.

surprising unbiased article from BBC

 

[vidpicurl]

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surprising unbiased article from BBC

I donno by which standard you're saying this is unbiased. To my eyes the wordings are biased already. I'm sure most if not all "China" found in quotes in this article are translations of 大陆 (Mainland), and this is intentional mistranslation. In Taiwan one can't call PRC "China" in formal texts, it must be Mainland. In daily conversation, in the past, if you call PRC "China", you're diehard pro-independence. Today Mainland and China are more interchangable but still Mainland is the more everyday name and China carries a more political (pro-independence) undertone. It's just not possible that people casually keep calling PRC China like in this article.

 

[RoastGooseHKer]

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surprising unbiased article from BBC

The is a very typical wording of Anglo Saxon off shore balancing realism. They want to provoke unease and tensions to the point of keeping a rival continental power in check. However, they don’t like to be forced into a situation which could be completely out of their control, leading to an unwanted or un-winnable war. Lai has clearly pushed the envelope too far with his provocative wording and actions. That’s why you see Mr. Orange trying to whip him back in line by not allowing his plane to stop in New York. It is very similar to how Bush Jr. dealt with Chen Shui-bien back in 2007-2008.

 

[burritocannon]

one of the west's key advantages is in their mastery of a language that happens to be scalable and agile, affording them insidious and persistent influence over perception. the concept of 'unbiased' is one of these masterstrokes of thought shaping; its real role is to disarm critical inspection of their objectives. we should always be wary of thought-terminating cliches like that.

 

[tamsen_ikard]

one of the west's key advantages is in their mastery of a language that happens to be scalable and agile, affording them insidious and persistent influence over perception. the concept of 'unbiased' is one of these masterstrokes of thought shaping; its real role is to disarm critical inspection of their objectives. we should always be wary of thought-terminating cliches like that.

It has nothing to do with the west. Every country is capable of propaganda. The difference is 200 years of dominance and colonialism that has allowed english to become the lingua franca and thus everyone understands it.

Naturally, English media from the west is influential because of that. There is also the fact that western media orgs are very old and thus well known around the world.

Look at Indian propaganda news outlets having subtle impact across the world in shaping opinions because they also operate in English and have invested heavily to promote their channels and outlets.

RT from Russia also has a huge impact these days in the global south.

 

[zlixOS]

I looked at the USAF budget proposal and it calls for just 500 AMRAAMs! This is unquestionably the most important missile in the American inventory, and either the entire USAF leadership doesn't get it, or they're far from preparing for a war.


It gets worse! China isn't even the defender here - they're the attacker and they get to choose when, how, or if a conflict will happen in the first place. But at the same time, the geography is so favorable that China also gets to enjoy all the advantages of the defender!

The bigger point though is that the US miliary is rotten through and through. The reason why so little can be done despite their sky-high budgets is because the mechanisms of the MIC exist to shove money from public funds into the pockets of the private contractors. Whether this process serves to build a military that the US needs is not that important to the process.

But this is a fixable problem. Supposedly. The processes that the Pentagon has been using have to be reevaluated and reworked so that they can function as they're supposed to. But when's the last time you heard any American leader have the guts to say anything about that. I suspect that the US won't be able to fix anything significant in regards to its military until they lose a major war. The last time this happened was the Vietnam War, and they didn't fully learn their lessons until the Operation Eagle Claw fiasco.

Anybody attempting to understand the seemingly obvious and seemingly easily fixable grift culture of the US MIC needs to read

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TLDR the point of the US military isn't to defend the US or even attack its adversaries, but rather to simply be the US military and to project the image of a credible US military.