Nothing to do with that stop being facetious.
Taiwan is the gates to USA because Taiwan as a democratic state wants to be, chosen to be and serves their interests in doing so.
If the Americans are so determined, and I have no clue here, tbh, to defend Taiwan, why did they move - strategically to be fair to Biden, about the only really smart thing he did over four years - their chip manufacturing back to the United States? They're hedging, clearly, due to the uncertainty surrounding logistics in the world moving forward. Was almost a complete reliance upon Taiwain and some other states (China, too, I think) for import of chips used in high tech and even low tech apparatus. But the CHIPS acts (and there is a few hundred billion more where that came from) is all about securing the US' own manufacturing industry from "raw to cooked" (a reversal of the de-industrialization practices during the era of globalization). Plays really well with workers because these are/can be the kind of jobs which used to exist at autoplants. And that is the heartland of America which has three times now gone for Trump (because of this hollowing out of the American manufacturing process: off-shoring it at scale) because many of these towns and small cities have been decimated by economic collapse.
That is, if I were Taiwanese and seriously concerned with a Chinese invasion, I wouldn't be particularly reassured by American moves to detach, insofar as they can, strategical economic ties from the island.
You're the resident military expert (i.e. that is literally what you do for a living). My question is this, rhetorically: surely any invasion of Taiwan would mirror the Russian invasion of Ukraine? That is, the Americans would seek to exact as much "punishment" upon the Russians/Chinese as they could whilst remaining directly removed from the battlefield (providing all manner of weapons, no doubt).
That such an invasion would have to be amphibious is what makes it very difficult for China even with vastly superior air and sea assets. You still have to assault, full on, an island that will defend itself. And in wargames there are scenarios where China wins and loses and America wins but American victory qua Chinese retreat is not sufficient (when they project 30 years ahead) to actually equal a victory at all. It is phyrric.
That takes me back to oneniltothearsinal. I think he's right. It's in neither states' interest (China or America) for this to happen. In Taiwan, I mean, not the smaller islands and so forth where China will and is asserting itself.I mean, China has a landmass which is enormous and a population five times? larger than the US? An economy which in PPP terms is the largest in the world but with nuance, qua GDP and per capita, the second largest. Why would China, ancient players of the "war game" risk everything for what is absolutely an uncertain move? It already has the South Korean border as the US mark of delimitation where, if things go hot, or semi-hot, America will act along that line (and with Japan, too, with its bases there). I don't see a reason for a Chinese base in Taiwan or an American base there either. It moves the two toward a conflict that each emerge from greatly damaged.
