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> From my limited knowledge, the US has a military base in Taiwan.

Huh? No, it doesn't. It has military bases in nearby Okinawa, however. I'm sure the USA setting up a military base in Taiwan would really piss China off, and it would also be not very useful since the Ryukyu Islands are right next door anyways.

The USA simply provides Taiwan with weapons, and occasionally meanders an aircraft carrier around (or used to, it doesn't do that much anymore).

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> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Taiwan_Defense_C...

Taiwan existed because of the US. Basically, the other side of the civil war got defeated and come hiding in Taiwan behind US military. Otherwise, it'd have been invaded by China since.

It seems currently that there is no official military presence. However, there is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Assurances

I think it's enough to deter China from attacking Taiwan.

This was only active until 1979; the US currently has no military presence in Taiwan.

Taiwan exists because Mao decided to spend all his international capital on a Korean invasion rather than a Taiwan one, making the USA care about Taiwan again.

In an alternate dimension where Mao held back, we would have had a unified Korea and China, strange.

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