No. The USA doesn't own Japan to begin with so it can't lose it.
China would never succeed in invading Japan.
China would never succeed in invading Japan.
I'm European and I still have to meet someone ready to sacrifice something for Ukraine. People are extremely worried about the state of our economy, much more so than they are about what's happening in Ukraine.
I keep hearing members of the elite like Stoltenberg talking about being ready to make sacrifices for Ukraine, but Stoltenber won't actually have to sacrifice anything. A 50% rise in the cost of living won't affect his lifestyle in the slightest, while it will destroy the livelihood of many families.
In any case, we've all been subjected to unprecedented levels of propaganda. It's not a surprise that many feel more concerned about what's happening in Ukraine than in Yemen.
You asked
> how do you explain the European people supporting their governments assisting Ukrainians, when continuing the conflict is causing themselves direct discomfort and expense?
I replied
> we've all been subjected to unprecedented levels of propaganda. It's not a surprise that many feel more concerned about what's happening in Ukraine than in Yemen.
Everything else I wrote is what I think about the concept of "sacrifice" that the elites fill their mouths with knowing it won't really affect them.
Whether my argument is dubious or not to you, it is still an argument and a valid answer to your question.
You might want to explain why my answer doesn't convince you, rather than simply dismissing it as "beside the point" when it isn't.
I find that wholly unconvincing.
You seem to think that the only reason people care is due to media coverage that you deem as pure propaganda.
Might it be that the media coverage is in fact more than for instance coverage of Yemen, because people care more (however unfair that may be to the Yemeni)?
I can tell you nobody cared at all (most people outright ignored the situation) about Ukraine in the 2014-2022 period, even though Ukrainians were dying for all those years. When Russia took Crimea, that was minor news in my country.
People are used to conflicts happening in the world and we've grown cynical about it, which is why nobody really cares about the Yemenis, for example.
The reason we now care (even though trust me, from a personal point of view nobody really "cares") is that there is a daily stream of Ukraine related news, reporting exclusively the point of view of Ukraine and the statements from their government, often without double checks.
"News just came from Ukrainian officials that the Russians raped 50 children". Even without any evidence, when a statement is repeated ad nauseam by every news source it becomes reality. In the meantime Ukrainians artillery killed several civilians in Russia-occupied Donetsk, but there is no mention of it. This is how propaganda works.
Artillery killed several Ukrainian civilians in Russia-occupied Donetsk because Russia occupied Donetsk.
And the context of geopolitics is much closer to friendship than ownership.
As far as I am aware Japan doesn't have a particularly large standing military, and isn't that far away. Meanwhile the Chinese could, and probably would, be willing to drown the entire island in human wave tactics.
[0]https://www.army-technology.com/features/japan-as-the-third-...
Related, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
The problem is that it isn't enough for amphibious invasion of Japan or Taiwan. They don't have enough amphibious ships. And the ships would be very vulnerable to anti-ship missiles. Truck-mounted anti-ship missiles, which Japan has a bunch and Taiwan should be buying, have changed things. The other thing that has made amphibious invasion infeasible are multiple rocket launchers, like HIMARS given to Ukraine, which can wipe out an entire beachhead.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248946
> Can you imagine what a landing beach would look like being pounded by drone spotted artillery? See war in Ukraine. Forget the approach, anti ship missiles, mines, sheer volume of logistics needed. Stepping on the landing beach is a suicide without absolutely astronomical advantage in air power and ability to suffer huge attrition, even then.. 155mm hidden under camo/thermal nets, DJI drone rigged with magazines of small bombs.. Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson Childs play, this would make Diep and Galipoli look like walk in the park.
> I would go as far as to say that US Army + Marines + Navy could not land on Taiwan without suffering multiple brigades of attrition AFTER at least a year long blockade and air campaign. It is that hard.
> PRC has to surpass US in GDP, then spend 10-20 years of US level military spending, then maybe.
Maybe hours.