Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "Why Taiwan matters to the United States" video.

  1. There are active independence movements, but it's a fringe minority. The departure of US military activity alone would crush their economies, right as they also need to set up new diplomatic and trade relationships... and their biggest international market advantage isn't something those islands can export, compared to their simple existence as dry land in the middle of the sea.
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  2. Chips are a recent resource and not as critical as the geostrategic location to screen ship traffic (especially submarines). Mainland China can't gain the benefits of TSMC short of peaceful surrender; simple neglect (not to mention battle damage) and human capital flight would quickly render the seized facilities irreversibly destroyed for that bleeding edge fabrication they were wanting.
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  3. We can set up alternatives for chips; even if they're a generation or two behind it'd still be workable. China however can't replace the loss of food and fuel that they import by sea regardless of how many overland links they set up; they'd quickly run out of money trying to pay for getting it across practically all of Asia.
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  4.  @theotherohlourdespadua1131  But at least it happened, unlike what unfolded on the Mainland in 1989 when the Party made it clear that "New China" should be more like the old dynasties except bound by philosophy rather than bloodline.
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  5. It would be in response to those Caribbean nations wanting Chinese presence after being deceived into trade deals with the US that don't end up anywhere near as beneficial as expected, while having their sea claims violated to include militarized outposts and violent fishing armadas. Only their defensive vulnerability prevents them from countering as openly forcefully as they really want to.
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  6. That's why I don't trust shortsighted private businesses and commercial interests as the best guide for our national policies: they're liable to sell us out.
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  7. The cheap labor isn't necessarily a productive one. Chinese government practices prevent China's labor force from being as efficient and reliable as required: hukou limitations on residing where the jobs are, increasingly politically-driven "education" leaving graduates underprepared, a constant sense of getting caught in "violation" or "underperformance" to vague and ever-changing government directives, and nowadays add "Dynamic Zero-COVID" physically preventing the movement of goods. China's main advantage was its scale and its willingness to forego environmental and human capital best practices to reach the market dominance it enjoyed until now. This stimulus however destroys the country from the ground up, and the ruling Party's arrogance leaves China with little sympathy from those it could use the most help from as it discovers an actually self-reliant "New China" is only a hollow shell of its imperially grand expectations.
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  8. Taiwanese chips aren't as crucial as being able to detect the movements of PLA Navy boomer subs trying to pass by.
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  9. Don't forget the insurgency that would arise during such occupation, which Taiwanese are ready to fight and the PLA is unprepared to combat. Remember the US was wholly frustrated by the improvised weapons and tactics of the North Vietnamese and Taliban, and rumor is America is teaching Taiwan's forces exactly how to defeat an occupier's political goals with its decades of experience on the wrong end of an IED.
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