Tuesday, July 27, 2004
What's Up in Matsu Islands Isn't About the Goddess--Tiawan Puts Missiles 16 Kilometers from Mainland
12:44 AM /
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9 Comments:
Hi Joseph,
FYI after reading this I asked the JDW ed. to send me the original article, which he kindly did. It's reprinted up at my blog.
Phil
Phil,
That's being a heads-up editor; well done.
Joseph
I would suggest that putting anti aircraft radar and missile batteries off of anybody's coast was a no no for peacful relations and would be actually be likly to provoke a confrontation by an acidental launch against a routine patrol or a civilian aircraft (as reportedly happened to an Egyptian airlinner some years ago).
Also has anybody noticed a striking thing. That the men and women in capital hill feel that it is perfectly OK to sell weapons to an island off of the coast of China that are intended to use against China and to ignore China's complaints, and yet if China were to send missiles or anti aircraft defenses to Cuba, an island that America has already made at least one attempt to invade (Bay of Pigs) and has had in a strangle hold for a great many years, but has no expansionist tendancies towards America, this would be considered to be an act of unparrelleled aggression.
I would suggest that I agree with you, on all counts.
Thank you for visiting these pages and taking the time to comment.
Joseph
"Unparalleled aggression"?
How about getting China to reign in their military and it's regular bellicose threats to invade Taiwan?
Or getting the PLA to stop the buildup of missiles (now counting around 500) aimed at Taiwan?
Do you honestly think that Taiwan is a military offensive threat to China?
Taiwan is most certainly a military threat to China. Up until the 70's, the RoC was staging intermitant attacks on the PRC via frogmen, sabotage, and whatever else they could do. Of course this ended when the U.S. switched recognition to the PRC. Even today, Taiwan still poses a significant military threat to the mainland if not as much as it used to. Should Taiwan acheive independence if the PRC does not respond, relations will not change on either side of the straight. This is something few foreigners understand, the mentality of the Taidu separatist is not political independence, but rather that they have no desire to be associated with anything Chinese and if they are able to gain control of Taiwan, it will forever be antagonistic to mainland China simply because they despise everything Chinese. Now you may say that this is a rather bold statement but I genuinely feel that this is not wrong as evidenced by virtually every comment made by a Taidu supporter I know. If you think the CCP and the Chinese are irrational for their attachment to Taiwan, the greens are even more so in their desire to distance themselves politically, culturally, and ethnically away from the mainland.
Can you explain the word "Taidu"? I don't recognize any Chinese term that fits that (honestly curious--not trying to provoke).
Taiwan invade China? Sorry, but I can't take that seriously. If you want to bring up past strange (and futile) R.O.C. exercises you have to remember that up until the '70's the R.O.C. dictators were also functioning under that fantasy that they'd one take "re-take" the Mainland. Let's talk about 2004. Other than as a purely hypothetical exercise, there is of now no reliable military strategist that supports a likely scenario of Taiwan invading China.
And you're claiming that any Taiwanese person who doesn't want to merge their country with China despises the Chinese? You ought to hang out with a better class of people. The Taiwanese I know just want to go on with their lives without fear of invasion or having their hard-won freedoms usurped. Ironically, most of them feel a strong connection with China. They've visited there and know a lot about their culture and history, but along with their connections with the Mainland they are also becoming more aware of their own Taiwanese identity.
The Taiwanese I know see themselves as Chinese in the same way as, for instance, many Americans see themselves as British: it is a part of their roots, and with that is shared a great deal of their culture. But nothing more.
Remember: SELF-DETERMINATION.
Taidu is simply shorthand for the Chinese term ???? or Taiwan Duli, aka Taiwan Independence. The second character for each term is dropped for the abbreviation.
Also I wasn't neccessarily implying that the RoC still had a chance to take over the mainland, but rather that in the Chinese view of things, an independent Taiwan would almost certainly be hostile to China. A Chinese Cuba if you will.
As for my comment about my Taidu supporters bearing a barely concealed contempt for anything Chinese, perhaps I am hanging around the wrong people, but they seem to be the most prolific and the loudest. Just recently a Taiwanese pop-star A-mei gave her first performance in Beijing after a 4 year hiatus (she had been blacklisted by the PRC as being pro-independence for singing at Chen Shui Bians innauguration in 200). However, aftering having returned to CKS airport and making a comment identifying herself as Chinese, she became the target of pan-green ire as many people moved to denounce her as a traitor to Taiwan for that innocuous statement. Beijing doesn't have a monopoly on pettiness apparently.
As an avid studier of military weapon systems and armed forces of the world I am a bit puzzled about this article.
Anti-shipping missiles based on land are defensive weapons. They are designed to keep ships away from you. In the case of Taiwan, these ships would be part of an amphibious task force attacking the islands.
Multiple radars are placed there for redundancy in case one is knocked out in time of war. Radars are very easy targets to destroy. Russia always had radar redundancy, on land and on their ships.
Anti-aircraft missiles based on land are defensive. Multiple types of such missiles keep any attacker from being able to concentrate on one type of countermeasure. This allows the defenders a greater chance of success by keeping the attackers off guard. The 500 to 600 short range ballistic missiles on the mainland facing Taiwan are not defensive. They are designed for pinpoint attack.
In short, China is an ever growing threat to Taiwan and the author either cannot see it due to his lack of knowledge or his agenda.
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