Hacker News Reader

Comment by ExoticPearTree | Hacker News Reader

> Taiwan has a real threat, and if they can build defenses that mean China faces a years-long war, there probably won't be one.

China could just bomb Taiwan into submission if it chooses to. I don't think it is a problem for China to build 20-30k ballistic missile and launch them at Taiwan. Or send a million drones over there just to be sure nothing survives them.

Taiwan is, unfortunately, in a very precarious situation should China decide enough is enough and reunification must happen no matter what.

View on HN

1. “Reunification” is straight Chinese propaganda. Taiwan has never been part of the PRC. Japan has a stronger claim for “reunification” than the PRC does (and that’d also be very dumb)

2. Taiwan and Taiwanese allies also have agency. China doesn’t just get to fire 20-30k ballistic missiles at Taiwan with no consequences. The consequences would maybe be asymmetrical, but they’d no doubt be very painful for China.

The idea is completely absurd to me.

China is constrained on this by near certain mutually assured economic destruction.

Even the food supply in China would basically be destroyed unless you believe that the population is going to just go back to a diet of largely rice with meat being a luxury.

20-30k ballistic missiles at Taiwan would cause a global depression that dwarfs the great depression. There would be almost no way the CCP survive this. That is why this subject is mostly people talking nonsense.

Reunification has to happen politically, persuasively, over time and without firing a shot.

1. That I see it as payback for the KMT losing the civil war.

2. Yeah, dunno about that, who will do what exactly to China? I also think that, since you mentioned it, Japan would intervene, China will pretty much use it as an excuse for retribution on what the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2.

I'd assume China wants to keep as much manufacturing capabilities of Taiwan intact. If it was just about unification, then it would have happened long time ago.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com