China's Foreign Ministry expressed anger on Thursday after two U.S. fighter jets landed in Taiwan, in a rare official contact between the militaries of the United States and the self-ruled democratic island.
Taiwan's Central News Agency said the two F-18s landed at an air force base in southern Taiwan on Wednesday after experiencing mechanical problems. It said it was not clear where they were coming from or where they were going.
Heck, we landed one of our planes in China when it had mechanical difficulties. Oh wait, one of their a-hole pilots rammed our EP-3. Then you were happy as a clam the plane landed on Hainan so you could examine it in detail.
More and more, I think one of our Stryker brigades plus a Patriot battalion should experience mechanical problems and land on Taiwan.
Really, if the Chinese think that they can conquer Taiwan before we can react and send help, this would end that calculation.
Of course, I've long felt that China would not attack our forward deployed forces or Japan if they attack Taiwan in order to maintain the fiction that the fight is an "internal" matter and to delay our decision to intervene.
If we are already on Taiwan as a tripwire, then we'd have to deploy our forces in the western Pacific on the assumption that China would attack us at the same time as the invasion forces sails and flies to Taiwan.
