Comments by "Alan Friesen" (@alanfriesen9837) on "China flexes muscles over Taiwan | DW News" video.

Why do you assume that Japan, South Korea and the Philippines would want to alienate themselves from their top trading partner? Do you really think any of these countries want to get dragged into a war with China when one of the others comes crossways with them? Within ten years China is likely going to be the equal of the United States in the Western Pacific. The retaking of Taiwan is a given sometime within the next three decades. That kind of alliance might make sense over the next ten years, but beyond that it would be extremely foolish. I don't see any East Asian countries being daft enough to promise to go to war with China for the benefit of any other.
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@pakde8002 There's no guarantee that any current government will survive to 2049, but I have confidence in some of them. I think China's government has as good a chance as any, and better than most.
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Anti Pooh-Bear Boy, you are really misinformed. China's never considered Japan to be their territory, ancestral or otherwise. Korea's a little more complicated, both because a Han Dynasty feudatory stretched about halfway into the peninsula at one point and also ancient Goguryeo stretched fairly deeply into Jilin and Liaoning. But if China really wanted to take part of Korea, they probably would be taking advantage of the weakness of the DPRK. China has said on numerous occasions that states should be able to choose their own form of government without interference from other states. There is no evidence whatsoever that China wants to destroy democracy in any country. China is not an evangelistic country. Where it has spread its culture in the past, it has done so through leading by example. If other countries choose to have a government system like China (which for various reasons I think is inadvisable), it is not because China is lobbying those countries to emulate it. China will most likely seek to have influence in countries around the world, and they will pursue strong influence in those countries in their neighborhood. This would be the case regardless of China's government so long as China is stable enough to concentrate on such.
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@beasley1232 Japan and South Korea have genuine concerns because their trade routes to the Indian Ocean basin and on to Europe go through waters near Taiwan and Chinese reunification would put these waters very much under Chinese control which would effect the relationship and the power balance between these countries. Chinese reunification does not in-and-of-itself indicate Chinese imperial expansion. Of course, as a proud and powerful country, one cannot rule out eventual expansionary ambition on China's part, but there is no good reason to assume that China will pursue that kind of a future.
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Caleb Ryan Koko Why not fifty years ago? Because the Korean War got in the way. China will take Taiwan by 2049. It's up to Taiwan whether or not it's a bloodbath.
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