If Xi Gives The Order To Invade Taiwan, What Should The US Do?

[Unique_Carpenter]

What should the US do?
It would be over in a couple hours, so to late for US do anything cause it takes over an hour to simply wake up Zombiden.

[oeb11]

One option - Arm Taiwan with nuclear short range missiles to defend teh Strait of Taiwan.

add - nuclear tipped torpedo attack submarines.

the corollary is JFK's cuban missile crisis.

Xi will be forced to make choices

It could end badly.



We should learn out lesson - as in our war of Independence against teh Brits - a war for a country across the seas with long supply lines - where it is difficult to tell friend from foe (viet nam - Afghanistan) - is unwinnable.

[dilbert firestorm]

Originally Posted by Tiny

The secessionist authority in Taiwan overestimated itself, claiming to act as an outpost of the US to contain the mainland. But once the PLA launches a general offensive against the authorities on the other side of the Taiwan Straits, or even it issues an ultimatum before launching the attack, the world will see how weak and coward the Taiwan secessionists are.

last paragraph is misleading.

china attempted to invade Taiwan two times during the 1950's; both failed.

invading taiwan is not going to be an easy endeavor.

they would need 1 million men to invade taiwan.

[dilbert firestorm]

Originally Posted by the_real_Barleycorn

Sink every Chinese ship on the high seas. If they have troops on Taiwan they are stuck. Ship a bunch of anti-aircraft missiles to Taiwan. Shoot down anything that flies. A missile is cheaper than a plane. Ships take awhile to build.

agree with you on this point. U.S. submarines would be the key to Taiwan's defense.


in addition to sinking chinese ships, they also need to take out the missile batteries on mainland china.


the marine corp is now in the process of reorienting their force structure to be more fast and light weight. they've unloaded their M1 tanks to the Army. they're roughly going back to their roots from world war II during the pacific island hopping campaign.


from what i've read, they're going to be missileers instead of tankers. basically, they'll be driving trucks/hummers with multiple missiles.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by oeb11

One option - Arm Taiwan with nuclear short range missiles to defend teh Strait of Taiwan.

add - nuclear tipped torpedo attack submarines.

the corollary is JFK's cuban missile crisis.

Xi will be forced to make choices

It could end badly.



We should learn out lesson - as in our war of Independence against teh Brits - a war for a country across the seas with long supply lines - where it is difficult to tell friend from foe (viet nam - Afghanistan) - is unwinnable.

That’s a very interesting idea, that I’ve never heard anywhere else. Department of Defense planners should be reading the Eccie political board.

Would you give control of the weapons to the Taiwanese so there would potentially be less blowback on the USA?

You brought up Cuba as an example. How do you think it might play out when China discovered the missiles were there, or there were plans to put them there?

[rexdutchman]

What should we do VS what will we do Hmm ---- Puddens backs china so NOTHING but watch

[ICU 812]

If China invades Taiwan there will be nothing we can or will do.

In any case, China will wait till the US is consumed by some crippling distraction like food riots at the coming Holidays. Or it could be nationwide agitation surrounding the '22 elections. . .or the '24 elections. They can wait. And they will help along whatever chaos evolves to make it worse. Then they will just come over. It will be quick and bloody too.

They wouldn't do it while the sitting president was a strong figure.

I'll bet there was a deep analysis of our decision making tree after the botched Afghan withdrawal.: Who is actually in charge and what they are willing to do . . .and how long it takes to act; that sort of thing.

Re-taking Taiwan has been war-gamed in China since Mayo cashed Chiang Kai-shek to Formosa.

They are already setting it up by stating that they are prepared to "defend" Taiwan as a province of China.

[the_real_Barleycorn]

So...we have to arm Taiwan with something that will degrade both the naval and air forces of China at little cost to us or the Taiwanese. The Norwegians have a class of missile boat that can hide in fiords and fire ship sinking missiles using a spotter up on their cliffs. Taiwan could use technology as the equalizer and a spotter for high tech missiles. Without a fleet, the Chinese would have to rely on air supplied troops. Then comes the missiles again. Shoot down a fighter plane and you've shot down a fighter plane. Shoot down a troop carrier and you've killed a platoon or company.
I would be opposed to the US doing anything on the mainland of China. Taiwan, not so much. However, having said that, I would have plans to drone Chinese missile batteries with either sub launched missiles or actual drones.

[bb1961]

Originally Posted by Jackie S

From what I have rad, Taiwan has a pretty extensive defense system with the latest weaponry.

In a way, this would be a replay of Hitler’s operation Sea Lion, his master plan was to cross the English Channel and invade England. His generals explained to him that this was not like crossing a river, and casualties would be horrendous.

Even Hitler came to his senses.

What Xi is hoping is the Us will chicken out and say……”too many of our elected officials have way to many investments in China to risk it all helping Taiwan”.

It will be up to Taiwan to kill as many of the communist bastards that they can.

Maybe Xi will have a Hitler moment and realize that.

It was the Battle of Britain that convinced him...he realized he didn't have air superiority which was imperative to a successful invasion.
The US crossed the entire Pacific (very costly in human lives) to the doors of Japan kicking there asses at every Battle they fought...I understand times were very different then.

[Jackie S]

Originally Posted by bb1961

It was the Battle of Britain that convinced him...he realized he didn't have air superiority which was imperative to a successful invasion.
The US crossed the entire Pacific (very costly in human lives) to the doors of Japan kicking there asses at every Battle they fought...I understand times were very different then.

The US Navy could easily protect Taiwan. Or we could form a Coalition of Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, etc to rally to the cause., much like President Bush 41 did when Saddam declared Kuwait a run away province of Iraq and decided to invade.

But it goes back to one of my original statements. Far too many of our elected officials , business magnates and WalMart shoppers are heavily invested in China.

It makes no difference that China is a Communist Thugocracy that will put your ass against the wall if you get out of line.

What counts is the Dollar, or the Renminbi.

[Tiny]

We have a lot invested in Taiwan too. Without their chips and other electronics items the supply chain for many products breaks down.

[NoirMan]

The Chinese would still allow production if the took Taiwan. Just like they do chips TVs and phones out of China. It’d just be China’s money. This won’t come to pass nonetheless. China may want Taiwan but the cost of taking it is too high.

As for arming Taiwan with nukes, never gonna happen. We’d breach every nonproliferation agreement and open the door to China or Russia to arm Iran or some other regime in order to create immense pressure on the US and our allies.

[oeb11]

NM - You live in nonsense land if you think the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is followed by russia /Comrade Xi!
They are actively assisting Iran and other terrorist agencies /countries to acquire nukes - in order to nuke America without seeming to be responsible.



Buck fiden
Buck DPST cultist party
From my cold dead hands!

[HedonistForever]

China will wait for a time when they can just walk into a Walgreens in San Fransisco and take everything they want with no fear of retaliation because America has lost it's will to fight.


Sorry, couldn't resist the analogy.

[FatCity]

What Should The US Do?

Immediately call China and inform them if the President wants to take action. If China doesn't like that, we'll be sure to subvert the Executive branch decision