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[SBD]

[BuffaloJack]

Does this mean the Taiwanese people might actually be U S citizens? Puerto Rico is a U S territory, and the Puerto Rican people are U S citizens. Same thing ain't it?
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[dusty]

Now this is going to be a pretty kettle of fish. Hot potato may not fully describe the situation this brings up.
China is fully intent on exerting their control over Taiwan and threatening Nuclear power to make it so.
Another conundrum. Just what we need. I sure wouldn't want to be in Taiwan in the middle of this power stuggle.
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Left and Wrong are the opposite of Right!

[DLI78]

This history doctor kind of glosses over 200 years of Ching dynasty rule of Taiwan, then makes the 50-year Japanese occupation look somehow more important. Not!

And he has a kind of shaky understanding of what role Taiwan played under Chiang Kai-shek (aka Chancre Jack). Yes there was a period now known as the "white terror". It was not a lot of fun if you were under suspicion. Similar to when McCarthy was doing investigations from congress. My father-in-law survived being under suspicion and retired from first the military, then the police. Along the way he raised a family and lived in the middle class. Sort of the Taiwan translation of the American dream.

That was ALSO when Chiang (CKS) did the radical step of paying rich people for their land and taking it (think emminent domain for nation building purposes). As long as the rich invested that money in certain needed industries, they were not taxed. Does anybody HERE wish we were half as advanced in our tax policy as somebody who died 30 years ago???????? But wait, there's more.

The rich got a LOT richer by following CKS's play book. CKS then took that land and "sold" it to the peasants who actually worked the land, as long as they produced the crops the government needed. Low to no taxes, no BS interference, live or die based on how hard you work. One farmer was my landlord in the late 1980s. He took his rice paddies and built apartments and rented them out. The man helped the economy and provided housing for a lot of people.

At the same time, those paragons of the left on Mainland China were rounding up the people whose families were well to do and executing them, taking their land, then forming collectives. This bonehead maneuver resulted in the starvation deaths of MILLIONS. Probably more than died in Hitler's camps. But they died from starvation, not crematoria, and they were killed by the same race as the killers. So like Stalin's victims we didn't say crap about the murders of millions.

So let's just make it real simple and boil it down to terms even the most brain-dead leftist piece of crap would have trouble arguing with.

Chiang Kai Shek, a nationalist, right-wing show-me-the-money kind of guy created an economic miracle. He turned a backwater that was less important than a pimple on the butt of a mosquito into the world's 12th largest trading nation. If God was going to give the world an enema he would have bypassed Taiwan because it was lower-ranked (LESS important) than the world's butthole.

At the same time, that darling of the left Mao ze-dong (mousie tongue) was busy killing the people who had the drive and smarts to make money in a hell of a long recession (AKA WW2). Good plan. That might be one reason why MILLIONS starved to death under Mao.

Yeah, gee, I wish we had that kind of inspired leadership here.

OK, so lets get to the main point this history doctor has wrong. The US is not obligated to defend Taiwan because it is a US possession. We have always made clear, and it was our open diplomatic position for decades that Taiwan was the legitimate ruler of all china. Then Mr. Peanut became president and recognized communist China as the legitimate ruler. Sure, and if you're Chinese and disagree the "legitimate" rulers will run you down with APCs and tanks and machine gun fire on live TV.

In response to Mister Peanut the US congress did the right thing and drafted the Taiwan Relations Act. The TRA obligates the US to defend Taiwan against invasion. THAT is why we are obliged to defend Taiwan if the commies try to take over.

At the same time, we have also let Taiwan know that poking the gorilla in the eye is not helpful, and if they declare independence from China we might not follow the TRA.

[GenrXr]

good posts ya'll.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[SBD]

I think you missed something here. Japan was not occupying Taiwan for 50 years, China ceded it to Japan in a legally binding Treaty after losing the war. That is not the same as occupation. This is no different then the entire western half of the United Stated which was ceded from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. It's only been 150 years, does that mean the treaty is not valid and I am really a Mexican living in California? It may seem that way sometimes, but California is not part of Mexico yet.

The part about defending Taiwan if China attacks is valid, in spite of and in addition to any other act of Congress because of the Treaty with Japan supercedes and is still in effect obligating the defense of all previous Japanese territories which would include Taiwan.

SBD

[PhantomSgt]

[SBD]

[PhantomSgt]