- 07 Aug 2022 16:42
#15242070
Since 1979, China had this policy, 'One Country, Two Systems. It was goofy, but it worked. Everybody pretended Taiwan wasn't independent, but of course it was.
Xi killed it.
What is likely to have happened here was that we needed to know how serious Xi was. Sending Pelosi was a test. She isn't part of the White House or the Dipcorp, so the administration had all options open about how to respond to whatever China did.
From our POV, Xi failed the test.
The strategic ambiguity of the past is gone. So now we have to build a new policy, and a new way to structure our forces in the region. You see, we challenged their credibility, and they may challenge ours. Now that we've pissed Xi, we need to be ready if he does something really stupid.
None of this was necessary. The smart move by xi would have been to ignore it, or downplay it.
But that's not where we are. A massive military exercise takes months of planning. They didn't just throw that together over the weekend. They were all ready, and just waiting for the right moment.
The administration was already talking about selling more weapons to Taiwan. That caught my attention when it happened, almost exactly a year ago.
It's a bit like chess.
Xi killed it.
What is likely to have happened here was that we needed to know how serious Xi was. Sending Pelosi was a test. She isn't part of the White House or the Dipcorp, so the administration had all options open about how to respond to whatever China did.
From our POV, Xi failed the test.
The strategic ambiguity of the past is gone. So now we have to build a new policy, and a new way to structure our forces in the region. You see, we challenged their credibility, and they may challenge ours. Now that we've pissed Xi, we need to be ready if he does something really stupid.
None of this was necessary. The smart move by xi would have been to ignore it, or downplay it.
But that's not where we are. A massive military exercise takes months of planning. They didn't just throw that together over the weekend. They were all ready, and just waiting for the right moment.
The administration was already talking about selling more weapons to Taiwan. That caught my attention when it happened, almost exactly a year ago.
It's a bit like chess.
Facts have a well known liberal bias