I realize there are good reasons not to do so right now -- RoC itself still says on paper they own all of China, and the West is still too dependent on Chinese manufacturing -- but it would be good to move towards recognizing reality.
Similarly to how China threatened Hongkong if there had been any democratic reforms by the British. That does not hinder China apologists now from bringing up the lack of democracy under british rule.
The Taiwanese first and foremost decide their status, and they want to maintain the status quo. We can’t force another people to declare their own independence when they don’t want to.
Kindly recognize Palestine as a separate state according to United Nations Resolution 181, before you recognize Taiwan and kick-start yet another war.
The U.S. has started bombing campaigns for less reasons when organizations whose existence it has objected to have become armed. So the sanctimonious hypocrisy of baiting someone then claiming foul when the other responds won't really work here. The U.S. media will of-course fully blame China with 24x7 "evil china" campaigns. The non-NATO world will just shake their heads.
The only thing changing is that there are US soldiers in Taiwan, so if China invades it might kill them and trigger a response.
It shouldnt be that hard not to invade Taiwan in the first place, many countries are not doing it.
The current status quo is quite confusing, but has resulted in economic prosperity on both sides of the straits and mutual economic dependency of China and the West. There is little to gain and a whole lot to lose for all involved parties.
The rich strata of the U.S. who would never serve in a real, active war and have never faced human suffering in their lives - will actively cheer on and sponsor the losing side resulting in extreme number of human casualties.
Apart from that, the training mission could be recalled just as quickly again. Curious about what's gonna happen after the next election.
Trump, as president-elect in late 2016, took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan's president, something that had never happened before since normalization of US-China relations. I suspect that a second Trump administration will see him visit Taiwan, and restoration of formal diplomatic relations as opposed to the current "American Institute in Taiwan".
I hope Trump goes further and explicitly encourages Taiwan to build nuclear weapons. Had the US not twice squelched Taiwanese efforts in the 1960s and 1970s, East Asia would be a much, much calmer place today.
Taiwan was pressured to give up their nuclear program for the simple reason that none of the big boys want nukes that they can't control. And nothing would force China to take the risk of invading Taiwan faster than the latter starting a nuclear weapons program.
I'm glad to see the US appearing to cease the moment similarly here.