Taiwan has unveiled its first domestically-made submarine as it bolsters its defences against a possible Chinese attack.
President Tsai Ing-wen presided over the launch ceremony in the port city of Kaohsiung on Thursday.
US officials have warned that China could be militarily capable of mounting an invasion within the next few years.
Taiwan is a self-governing island which China regards as a renegade province and has vowed to reclaim one day.
Got to be daunting facing a large and well equipped enemy, and hearing people give predictions about which year they’ll invade. Would hope it would be a Ukraine like situation where they defy expectations, but who knows.
I have said it many times but Taiwan and Ukraine are very different situations.
Ukraine? We were all ready to abandon them the night of the invasion. Hell, we did exactly that when russia stole Crimea. Various nations provided limited support but it really boiled down to (speculation) russia taking too long between bombardment and getting troops to that airfield.
Taiwan? That won’t happen. Because even though TSMC is “branching out”, the vast majority of the “good” semiconductors still come out of Taiwan and will for at least the next decade or two (likely longer since Taiwan based TSMC won’t be sleeping). Taiwan falling will pretty much destroy the tech hardware parts of the economy overnight and lead to mass shortages that basically every “global north” country will have to deal with. And there is zero chance that Taiwan doesn’t blow up the fabs as a “last one out gets the light” scenario.
Systematic rape and ethnic cleansing? We sleep. Not having highway assist in new cars? Mother fuckers, we dare winnie the poo to launch some nukes because it is on.
The more Taiwan can do to provide deterrents, the better. But you can bet all those :NATO won’t engage in a war that doesn’t involve defending one of our member states" excuses will go out the door as fast as it always does when we decide we give a shit.