lol, much to learn.. Lyin' ted is a cold war warrior who's still stuck in the past. his epic fail of a presidential bid killed by a one liner is embarrassing. No americans is going to die for taiwan, simply because 95% can't point it on the map.
Well, after Taiwan has had 8 years with President Ma and his Pro-Beijing policies, Taiwan is feeling more than ever to want keep China at a distance. Among many things, this it yet another of many indications that China is doing something wrong to win appeal of other nations. And instead of China thinking of what they are doing wrong, they think they should just be more forceful. This kind of mindset is isolating China.
Taiwan's favorite countries from a new poll has China down low. The US placed higher. Japan placed very high.
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Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Singapore is the country that people in Taiwan like most among 12 major countries in Asia and beyond, according to the results of a survey released Monday by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation.
Some 87.1 percent of the respondents said they liked Singapore best, followed by Japan, which was cited by 83.9 percent of them.
Canada was the third pick, as chosen by 83 percent, ahead of the European Union (78.7 percent), Australia (78.6 percent) and the United States (68.1 percent), foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said.
Rounding out the top 10 countries in the national poll were Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and Russia, while the Philippines and North Korea were at the bottom, You said.
North Korea was voted by 81.6 percent of Taiwanese as the country they disliked the most, while the Philippines and China were mentioned by 57.3 percent and 47.4 percent of the respondents, respectively.
The survey, conducted March 13-14 among Taiwanese aged 20 and over, collected 1,185 valid samples. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin error of 2.85 percent.
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(focustaiwan)
It may be thought on this forum that the US will not defend Taiwan, but that is a false assumption. If you have been paying attention, slowly, but surely, acknowledgement of Taiwan by the US and US-Taiwan military interchange has slowly been on the raise. One of such indications is that for the first time, a US General on active duty will observe Taiwan's large scale exercise "Hanguang 33" this year.
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It became known on March 4th that the US Pacific Command will dispatch a general on active duty to an annual military exercise carried out by the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense with this year's exercise called "Hanguang 33". The news came from relevant sources of the Taiwanese military. It will be the first time that a US general on active duty goes to observe an exercise since the breaking of diplomatic relations between the US and Taiwan in 1979. It's an upgrade to US-Taiwan military interchange.
In December 2016, under the Obama administration, the US signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for year 2017, and in there was a provision for the first time to have high level interchange with Taiwan. This time's dispatch was posted on Taiwan's internet media "Up media" on March 1st.
According to Up Media, The Taiwan military introduced a wargame exercise system that was received from the US. In the following years, the US dispatched field-grade officers as an advisory group led by a retired general. But this time, the advisory group will still not be in uniform as has always been and they will observe the exercise from the highest command post at the Heng Shan Military Command Center.
台湾の国防部(国防省に相当)が行う今年度の年次演習「漢光33号」の図上演習に米太平洋軍が現役の将官を派遣することが4日、分かった。台湾の軍事関係筋が明らかにした。1979年の米台断交以降、現役の将官が演習を視察するのは初めて。米台の軍事交流を格上げした形だ。
米国はオバマ政権下の昨年12月に成立した2017年度の国防権限法で、台湾との現役の高官による交流を初めて規定している。今回の派遣は台湾のネットメディア「上報」が1日付で報じていた。
上報によると、台湾軍は03年に米国から図上演習システムを導入。米軍は翌年から顧問団として現役の佐官は派遣していたが、団長は退役の将官だった。今回の派遣でも、顧問団は慣例に従って制服は着用しないものの、最高指揮所となる「衡山指揮所」で演習を視察するという。
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(sankei)
Furthermore, there are even indications now that Japan will step up for Taiwan's defense in the coming years.
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The Self-Defense Forces will carry out a simulated exercise later this month on the premise that China and Taiwan are engaged in a military clash, a government source said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry plans to check how SDF personnel should perform new duties allowed under Japan’s security laws in the outbreak of a situation deemed to pose serious threats to Japan’s peace and security.
The SDF will carry out the exercise from Jan. 23 to 27 with the U.S. military participating as an observer, the source said.
The drill will take place based on a scenario that the U.S. military and the SDF jointly deal with Chinese military forces in the event of a clash between China and Taiwan.
The revised security legislation, which took effect last March, expands the SDF’s role in providing logistical support to other nation’s militaries when Japan’s peace and security are deemed threatened regardless of location.
Japan’s old law effectively allowed the SDF to conduct such activities only in an emergency occurring in areas surrounding Japan.
The SDF carried out its first joint exercise with U.S. forces in November to simulate new duties allowed under the security legislation in the event of emergencies that threaten Japan’s peace and security.
The simulated exercise will take place at a time when relations between China and Taiwan have soured since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump talked by telephone with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.
But the upcoming exercise was planned before Trump was elected as the next U.S. president, the source said.
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(Japantimes)
Maybe China will say that it is not fair and that the US and Japan are interfering with Chinese sovereign territory and that Taiwan is really a province of China. But is Taiwan really inherently Chinese? It is kind of strange for a place to be considered inherently Chinese when in fact, the Spanish and Portuguese from the other side of the globe had control over Formosa before any Chinese dynasty had control.
In a sense, Taiwan just has a long history of being controlled by outsiders.
Spain/Portugual --> Ming/Qing --> Imperial Japan --> KMT dictatorship --> Democracy
I would add that China today has even managed to upset the South Koreans because of THAAD to the extent that even the South Koreans dislike China more than Japan.
A very important reason why the US won the cold war against the Soviet Union was because of America's success in maintain healthy and strong alliances. The US isn't perfect. The US has done terrible things. Yet other countries still prefer the US. Germany knew very well that surrender to the US was better than surrender to the Soviet Union. Japan knew the same thing, despite the US dropping nuclear bombs on Japan. China is making the same mistake that the Soviet Union made and is isolating itself by imposing a will on others that no one wants.
P.S. My account on this forum is still young and the forums still won't allow me to post links. So the following image has the addresses of each of the sources above.