Yet the Chinese keep aiming missiles at Taiwan and building up their military in the Taiwan Strait region. And the Chinese still insist they own Taiwan and will exercise that authority at some point--by force if necessary.
If force wasn't contemplated, why would the Chinese even care what weapons the Taiwanese bought? Under the warm and fuzzy scenario, it's all a waste of money for Taiwan, but otherwise irrelevant since China would never fight Taiwan.
Sadly, it is not a waste of Taiwanese resources and the Taiwanese need to buy more and prepare more for the onslaught that will take place one day. The PLA chief of the army kind of gave the game away:
Chen said the United States has sought China's help in international operations such as the war in Afghanistan or in fighting piracy off Somalia but undermined the mutual trust needed for such cooperation with its arms sales to Taiwan."
"Once the United State needs us to cooperate, they are good to us, they are friendly to us. Otherwise, they can do anything they want, even to offend the Chinese people. But I don't think that kind of cooperation can continue," Chen said at the meeting, which was open to the media.
Arming Taiwan "offends" China? Wow, that doesn't sound like a warm and fuzzy thought at all.
And guess again that China has no interest in suppressing jihadis in Afghanistan or suppressing pirate attacks around Somalia. China has restless Moslems who might draw inspiration from a Taliban victory and China relies on secure oil supply lines from Africa and the Middle East.
Nice try General Chen, in portraying your minimal help in both areas to leverage our far greater efforts that benefit both of us. Oh, and stopping North Korea from going nuclear isn't a favor to us either, if that comes up. Or does China wish to welcome Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan--for a start--as nuclear club members?
China isn't our enemy, but it isn't our friend yet. Taiwan would be wise to take it a step further--China is definitely their enemy, charm offensive notwithstanding.
