As an angry China watches, Taiwan president takes a risky trip

>China might respond to the trip with more military displays or by offering aid money to win over the Central American countries Tsai hopes to impress on her trip, some argue. China does not allow its diplomatic allies to have separate, formal ties with Taiwan.

>Tsai has played down prospects of high-level meetings on her U.S. stopovers but has not ruled out meeting any specific people. “The outside world has a lot of imagination regarding my transit stops,” she said at a news conference on Saturday. “But the outside world’s ideas are sort of over the top. Transit is just transit.”

>U.S. officials regularly allow transit stops, for refueling and comfort, to Taiwanese presidents bound for Latin America because the United States is located along the shortest flight path. China protests some of the stops – including the two scheduled this month – as signs that the United States is giving Taiwan too much attention.

>The U.S. is Taiwan’s strongest informal ally, though it established formal ties with the mainland in 1979.

>Tsai’s transit is “consistent with the unofficial nature of our relations with Taiwan,” said Sonia Urbom, spokeswoman with the U.S. mission in Taipei.

>The president will meet James Moriarty, the U.S. mission’s chairman, on both stops, which Urbom described as “private and unofficial.” Past presidents have used the layovers to meet Taiwanese business groups in the United States.

>In an apparent bow to China, the United States is not letting Tsai transit in New York or Washington, where she could more easily see U.S. politicians. She may still meet Republican Party leaders, who could later help Tsai deepen military or trade exchanges.
...

>If Tsai met Trump or someone on his team, Taiwanese would initially rejoice at the exposure and the chance for Taiwan to improve relations after Trump takes office Jan. 20, analysts say.

>“We will see if we can meet someone from the government and someone from the Trump camp,” said Lo Chih-cheng, a legislator with Tsai’s party. “If there’s any direct contact, that would be very important because it would send a message directly to the [new] president.”

>But since the Tsai-Trump phone call, which broke diplomatic protocol aimed at sustaining Sino-U.S. ties, many Taiwanese have worried Trump will use Taiwan as a bargaining chip to get trade concessions from Beijing. China said last month its claim to Taiwan was nonnegotiable; it wants the two sides eventually to unify.

>Tsai, a 60-year-old law scholar and former professor, has irked Beijing since taking office in May by declining to see Taiwan and China as parts of a single country and hold talks. Her Democratic Progressive Party favors more distance from China.

>“I think Tsai is likely alarmed by the fact that Trump proposed using Taiwan as a bargaining chip to extract trade concessions with China,” said Bonnie Glaser, a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, referring to comments in December. “I doubt [Tsai] sees benefits in poking Beijing by meeting members of Trump’s team.”

>Once in Latin America, Tsai plans to visit officials in the four countries, including heads of state.
...

>“We will use our normal approach to talk with those countries about what we can do together to let both sides see substantive benefits in carrying out our diplomacy,” Tsai said at Saturday’s news conference.

>Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined this week to give amounts or describe the purpose of recent aid for Central America. Under former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian through 2008, Beijing and Taipei vied to buy off each other’s allies. Tsai takes a more moderate stand toward China than Chen, and her government will not practice “money diplomacy,” her foreign minister said last month.

>But most of Taiwan’s 21 allies in the Americas, Africa and the South Pacific expect aid in return for giving Taiwan a voice in the United Nations, where China blocks Taiwanese participation.

>“You don’t have to put the money straight to the pockets of politicians in those foreign countries,” said Huang Kwei-bo, associate professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “If it builds an airport or a harbor or whatnot, then that’s in the range of fairness. But you’ve got to raise the amount.”
...

>Tsai should also convince the Central American countries that the quality of its aid beats “shoddy” programs offered by China, Sharp said. Taiwan, which sees typhoons every year, has offered hurricane relief to the Americas, he said.

>China, with more than 170 allies, including the world’s most powerful countries, hopes to minimize Taiwanese foreign relations to convince the world of its position that Taiwan is not an independent country.

>“If she can enhance friendships with Central American countries, that would be an indicator [Tsai] has scored points,” said Lo, the legislator from Tsai’s party.

>Many remaining allies have “undoubtedly already indicated to Beijing that they would like to switch their diplomatic allegiance,” Glaser said.

>In Honduras for a day, Tsai will meet President Juan Orlando Hernandez and lead a group of Taiwanese business people to scout out possible investments in farming, fishing, tourism and infrastructure, said Victor Alvarado, an attache in the Honduran Embassy in Taipei. The two presidents have met before, and Honduras is pushing to sell local goods in Taiwan, Alvarado said.

>"Relations have been getting better,” he said. “The two ambassadors have been working at it pretty hard."

What an amazing woman, I'm glad Park got kicked out, gives people an idea if what a real woman leader should be like

tl; dr after 'because the U. S. doesn't recognize her government.'

>>97586
>Trump is trying undermine China's growing superpower status and influence
>Will prevent Taiwan from becoming Tibetan 2.0
>shitlibs and crony politicians crying over it

Its like they're working for someone else, huh.

>>98664
>idealistic shit that isn't ever going to happen: the post
Oh look, he actually trusts politicians. How cute.

>>98664

Taiwan is never going to be Tibet the sequel, it has a protective body of water (reason that Britain and Japan were mostly safe from invasion in history) and plenty of US support. Those two things make Taiwan untouchable unless the US drops support (and China is willing to take international heat for invasion) or Taiwan willingly rejoins the mainland (a remote possibility given the current political situation).

What makes everyone flip their shit is that Trump upended decades of status quo and nobody knows what the new plan is, which generally makes nations (allied, neutral, and enemy) nervous. Without a clear plan of action, allies will be unsure of how they should treat China (since allies typically act in unison to maximize effect) and it's unclear if this new stance is just grandstanding or a permanent change in Sino-American relations.

>>98676

I worry that Trump is going to act like a child testing the boundaries of his crib and try to see how far he can push the whole I-can-piss-off-China-with-a-phone-call thing. Not because he has some grand strategy to change foreign policy -- just because he found out he can do so so simplistically.

Prediction: Trump tries to intercept Tsai at her Houston stopover for a photo op. I just hope Pence et al. have enough people monitoring his actions to be able to stop him.

>>98678
>Implying the Taiwanese Head of State won't immediately go to HIM

He's the one who put out the olive branch you silly willy.

>>98676
Protective bodies and water don't have the same strength now as they did historically.

China can take the the international heat They're just doing things at their own pace, hundred year plan and all that..

Sure, the west will cry and throw a tantrum, but that's where it'll end.

LETS FUCKING DO THIS!

WORLD WAR 3333333333!!!!!!!!

Fucking-boo-hoo China.

You know what's probably going to happen: China will continue to engulf and solidify their control over the region and then invade Taiwan. The rest of the world will be too scared/broke to intervene and will say 'sorry Taiwan, sucks to be you but your population of 24 million is smaller compared to our 400 million and we can't risk a world war with one of largest trading partners.'

Huh.. isn't that how Hitler did things? Kept advancing one country at a time while the west dicked around and sold him the raw materials for his expanding war machine?

>>97586
Good, fuck China.

I hope they all rot in their toxic swamp of a country.

>>98842
Calm down, we haven't even had World War 3333333332 yet.

>>97594
This bait is too rich

>>98835
The chinese economy is based on selling cheap plastic junk to western nations to support further economic development, they seize taiwan and all that definitely disappears.

Furthermore, the USA will defend Taiwan from PRC military aggression.

>>98835

Given the shitty state of the Chinese Navy, water still holds protective properties. While the air force still poses a problem, without that navy to transport troops to hold Taiwan it would severely slow down any invasion plan, giving Taiwanese allies plenty of time to react.

And as >>98901 says China still has an export economy. As long as they rely on the international community for their economy, they will not indulge in any risky behavior (Tibet was before they opened their market to the west) especially since their internal stability hinges on a growing economy.

>>98901
>they seize taiwan and all that definitely disappears.

If Trump decides to say "let's see how far I can push China" and meets with Taiwan's prez, and China retaliates by, say, putting an export tariff on WalMart and Target, how do you think the American people will react?

>>97586
> A splashy meeting with Trump or one of his future Cabinet members would probably anger Beijing to the point of retaliation, analysts say.

Oh bullshit! The LA Times needs to stop promoting propaganda coming from the PRC, mainland China ain’t going to war if Taiwan talks to Trump.

On the flip-side, Taiwan needs to drop all reference to them having any claim on or control of mainland China and simply declare formal independence as a free people.

And for good measure, Taiwan needs to give Quemoy and Matsu islands to the PRC, as a sign of peace.

>>98676
>or Taiwan willingly rejoins the mainland (a remote possibility given the current political situation).

Very remote.

Taiwan knows full well what happened to Hong Kong when they join with China (i.e. the PRC just flat-out took over despite all agreements) and will never let that happen to Taiwan.

The oldsters who long for the days of the Kuomintang calling the shots in China are all dead and the younger Taiwan-Chinese of today, don't give a shit about some mud farm in Guangzhou that their peasant grandparents shlepped around on.

China won't do shit.

Chinese here, America's carrier groups in Asia are more than enough take on China's out dated navy, it would be a massacre. Most Chinese ships wouldn't even be able to get a shot off due to their shorter engagement range. The government will just throw a tantrum because Tsai had tea or some such pleasantries with Trump.

>Boo fucking hoo commie fucks

>>97586
Only an inadequate, insecure little guy running that country.

Oh, hey look, USA is getting a new one too, in a few days. Trump is amusing, but scary in his immaturity.

>>98984
Boo Hoo, we can always get our cheap plastic crap and shitty electronics from other South Asian countries.

And fuck Walmart AND Target.

And Fuck some stupid asshole that isn't willing to pay a few bucks more for a tv or phone built in an non shitty country.

Like America

>>99121
>And fuck Walmart AND Target.
You say that like WalMart isn't America's largest employer. Also, both of those stores are probably the largest sources of creature comforts for the poor.

>>98984
>China retaliates by, say, putting an export tariff on WalMart and Target, how do you think the American people will react?

Laugh, as China goes bankrupt and descends into civil war, after all their factories grind to a halt and everybody loses their job...

>>99121
>And Fuck some stupid asshole that isn't willing to pay a few bucks more for a tv or phone built in an non shitty country.

The fact is that Free Trade ® doesn't make anything cheeper for the consumer, the corporations cut their payroll by X% and then pocket the difference, frequently _raising_ prices on products now made overseas.

>>99122
>You say that like WalMart isn't America's largest employer.

Because millions of Americans lost good manufacturing jobs and now have no other option.

>>98984
They wouldn't put an export tariff to America. They'd put an import tariff from America, or ban iPhones and Chrysler cars. (They said they'd do that if Trump didn't stop being a retard after the elections.)

You know China is one of the biggest client of Apple products, close to America? It would divide Apple's sells by a fourth or a third...

>>98984
That would be the best possible option. A very small percentage of Chinese products are built to very poor standards, partially due to multinationals' need to cut every possible corner, but also due to horrible workplace conditions at the very lowest rungs of industrial production in China.

If every shitty knockoff Chinese product made by a company whose address you cannot find disappeared from the shelves and Amazon, people would cry for a bit, then pay the 20% more for a product that will more than likely offset its costs through increased reliability and improved functionality. After the peasant class cries about having to pay $20 more for knockoff nikes, approximately 0 people will cry the loss of cheap Chinese goods.

China does have some top tier production capabilities but we need to contrive a market force so that only those products get in.

>>99180
>A very small percentage of Chinese products are built to very poor standards
I meant, to very good standards. Also I am an idiot.

>>99170
Blame American manufacturers for switching to robots over the last 50 years.

>>97586
Pathetic china: choking to death on its boundless ignorance.

Test: If you hear a female whining but you don't understand the language, what race is the female?
If you see a male that can't spell or speak even three-letter words, flapping around spastically and grabbing itself (an exhibitionist), what race does the male identify with?

>>99121
>And Fuck some stupid asshole that isn't willing to pay a few bucks more for a tv or phone built in an non shitty country.

Mate, you just described most of North America. The majority of products manufactured for the West are not for discerning consumers.

>>99180
China doesn't have even have the ability to make good ball point pens.