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Comment by vaughnegut | Hacker News Reader

Taiwan is an unsinkable aircraft carrier. It provides a massive platform from which to attack the mainland. Maintaining control denies this advantage to any attackers.

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There are so many unsinkable aircraft carriers around China. Taiwan is not the only one, and also Taiwan island is too far away from USA, the only possible opponent of China. So once the war is starting, China is very easy to occupy Taiwan before USA can provide the support.

Taiwan is actually very close to two very important US allies, the Philippines and Japan. It’s alot harder and more expensive to launch an attack from Luzon or Okinawa than it is to launch it from Taiwan.

I wouldn't count Philippines as US's alley now. And also, Taiwan Strait just 150KM wide, and how long between Luzon and Okinawa?

It's a hell of a lot closer to China than to Philippines or Japan.

FWIIW it was historically used by forces which threatened Chinese sovereignty, including Japan. Since Chinese leadership actually reads history instead of making stuff up as they go along, as Westerners do, that's probably why it's such a sore spot for them.

Invading Taiwan would require huge amounts of troop and material. Those things have to been moved weeks if not months in advance and can be easily picked up by satellites. Add to that that you can't simply land your soldiers anywhere on the shore, there are only a few landing spots that can be used and which are of course heavily defended. Also, the two lands are close to each other so Taiwan can send missiles to the mainland and cause heavy damage to the cities on China's east coast. Finally the weather, which according to some people [0][1] offers only two short windows during which an invasion is likely to not fail.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Taiwan consists of about 70% of mountainous areas, i.e the perfect terrain for an organized resistance.

Invading Taiwan is but an easy task and it is believed to be an endeavor that would surpass the D-day.

[0] https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=mzwGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT117&l... [1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/taiwan-can-win-a-war-wi...

Chinese army practiced taking control of Taiwan for years. This will be their first move in any armed conflict.

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