Taiwan flexes its warplane might

I am just killing myself reading some of these comments on the article.

A Mr. danny22 wrote: "Sorry folks, but the United States of America would never hold back from a military
offensive of China over Taiwan.

The US is the military power house of the world, no one in the world is as powerful
as the US.

The US has 2500 fighter jets equipped with nuclear warheads over China.

China might have man power, but the US has AIR power. "

It's all Shep's fault.

I'm just amazed that some dumb ass Taiwanese didn't try and drive around the roadblocks...because like traffic lights, stop signs and one way only signs those are for everyone but me(the mentality of the Chinese driver).

Taiwan has a nuclear deterrent and while their planes do need an upgrade they can hold their own.

If they do, then they've done an excellent job of keeping it a secret (although it wouldn't surprise me if they do have a nuke or two hidden away).

China has said that Taiwan acquiring nukes would be akin to declaring total independence, and would be a cause for war between the two.

It sucks to have overbearing neighbors, we know all about it in Canada.

The Taiwanese should get to decide their own fate, a referendum should put the case to rest.

Agreed, but the Western Powers will have to put the People's Republic in its place first.

Any kind of move towards official independence will cause the PRC to attack the island.

Do you honestly think China would give a damn if the results of a referendum showed they wanted to be independent? China firmly believes that Taiwan is part of China and I don't think they care what the Taiwanese people think.

If they do, then they've done an excellent job of keeping it a secret (although it wouldn't surprise me if they do have a nuke or two hidden away).

China has said that Taiwan acquiring nukes would be akin to declaring total independence, and would be a cause for war between the two.

The US got caught sending fuses for certain types of airdropped nukes a few years ago and more or less said, "Ooopsie!", while never asking the Taiwanese to send the fuses back. In short, we gave the Taiwanese a critical nuclear component and it was let slip into the public domain as a message to our friends in Beijing.

Do you honestly think China would give a damn if the results of a referendum showed they wanted to be independent? China firmly believes that Taiwan is part of China and I don't think they care what the Taiwanese people think.

This is sadly true. The Chinese government doesn't care what its own people think.

This presents a problem. The PRC can't be allowed to run roughshod to whoever it wants. This smacks of another Sudetenland scenario waiting to blow up.

Which runs afoul of China's "Middle Kingdom Syndrome" in which the Chinese believe that they have an inherent right to rule the entire world and if only their ignorant inferiors would recognize this then we could all get along.

In short, the Chinese think they have a right to do whatever they want to whomever they want.

Of course, if they want to do whatever they want they first need the capability and the problem with the Chinese is that they are still reeling from the aftereffects of both the Qing Dynasty and Mao and his ill-conceived Cultural Revolution. Their internal and cultural issues are so bad that they can't even mount a successful invasion of the Spratly Islands let alone be able to take on serious world players like India, Japan, Indonesia, the Phillipines, the USA, and etc. in order to get a pass on invading Taiwan.

Taiwan HAD a nuclear program that they shared with South Africa. It's thought that they could easily produce a weapon, but officially they deny having nuclear weapons. Crippling a dozen of the major cities(Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou of eastern China would effectively destroy China

Do you honestly think China would give a damn if the results of a referendum showed they wanted to be independent? China firmly believes that Taiwan is part of China and I don't think they care what the Taiwanese people think.

This is sadly true. The Chinese government doesn't care what its own people think.

This presents a problem. The PRC can't be allowed to run roughshod to whoever it wants. This smacks of another Sudetenland scenario waiting to blow up.

many of the older Taiwanese(not those who arrived with the KMT)wish that Taiwan had remained a Japanese island. The Japanese brought, schools, roads, infrastructure, law and order, electricity and a more egalitarian culture. it was harsh but fair, according to them.

It doesn't matter what kind of air power Taiwan has. China will just sail soldiers across the Taiwan straight. Of course the Taiwanese would sink many of these ships, but the sunken ships and bodies would create a new land mass connecting the island with the mainland. China would then roll tanks into Taiwan.