You are ascribing views to me that I haven't expressed. I haven't said that the West only fights for freedom and democracy. I've said that it sometimes fights for freedom and democracy - which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for most other nations. But of course it also sometimes fights for reasons more centred on self-interest.
Everything I've said about India and democracy is entirely true. If you think otherwise, then best tell what you claim is not true. The same goes for Britain's motivations during WWII.
Ukraine is literally on Russia's doorstep - since they share a common land border. 100 miles of open sea is something quite different, especially if a country is attempting to send an invasion force across it. Sink even one boat - and several thousand troops may go down with it before they even reach the fight - and Taiwan is stuffed to the gills with sophisticated weapons, including anti-ship missiles.
I've already explained why at this point there's no point antagonising China by formally recognising Taiwan. And yes, the world does face an existential struggle between democracy and freedom vs tyranny and oppression. But that doesn't mean we have to gung-ho declare war on China. Such conflict will arise if and when China attempts to take Taiwan by force. And by the way, the benefits of trade works both ways - it's not just to China's benefit.
12,000 miles to China by sea doesn't mean that much when you consider that (a) some of the carrier groups concerned - of which there at least 17 across pro-Western nations (not counting helo carriers) - will be much closer at any one time; and (b) we would know about any Chinese preparations for invasion weeks in advance.
And if such ships were to become well within Chinese missile and airforce range, then the same thing applies in reverse to any Chinese invasion fleet, missile bases and military airports. Many of the Chinese ships would be sunk before they even got halfway to the Taiwanese coast.
That isn't really how you've been coming across and you seem to think that is genuinely plays into the key decision makers in the West. I would imagine that most leaders would probably just about prefer a democracy (as long as it is in their interests) but would prefer a dictator otherwise who fulfilled their interests vs a democrat who didn't.
You seem to think that Britain fought in WW2 to save democracy and against fascism. You are confusing the on-ground reality at the time (Britain was a democracy, Germany a dictatorship), with a motivation. Germany was on its 4th annexation before the UK and France decided to get involved, why were they not protecting democracies beforehand? Hitler had ruled for 6 years before war broke out, what did they do in this battle of good vs evil? Britain and France's motivations were to avoid the balance of power shifting irrevocably towards one country on the continent, which is what Europeans have been going to war over for centuries.
The issue with the India theory (and the same with the railways) is it has behind it two rather unsavoury assumptions. The first is the, let's be honest racist assumption, that Indians would not have been able to reach democracy by themselves. That their people would not have been able to come to those conclusions by themselves, by watching from afar. I don't know if they'd have done so or not but your assumption is that they
only have democracy because of the UK. Same with the railways built to plunder India's wealth. Would the Indians not have been able to just....buy railways? The second is that those things, even if we presume them to be true, was worth the UK plundering what was at the time the wealthiest nation on Earth.
The point is that 100 miles is rather different to the thousands of miles European forces would have to travel . I'm not making comment on whether or not they can take Taiwan (I will bow down to your clear general level military expertise on this topic) but mostly commenting on how carrier numbers are not going to be as relevant, considering the Chinese will be in missile/jet range of those carriers? It also makes me laugh that you think Europeans would go to the other side of the world to fight against a nuclear armed China but aren't travelling a few hundred miles to fight against a nuclear armed Russia in a war on their continent.
Of course the Chinese would lose a huge amount of ships and men. Things can mean different things for different countries though. In the same way Russia is prepared to go to war and lose soldiers over Ukraine and the West is not, I'd imagine ultimately the same will be true for Taiwan.
I didn't deny trade works both ways. I'm just confused about why the pure West still continues to trade with the Chinese and their one party dictatorship and cult of personality? We are after all locked in a global death grip of democracy vs dictatorships are we not? Soooo.....why are we still finding the Chinese with all this trade? Why are we funding their oppression of the UIghurs? Why are we building up their forces? Most importantly, why are we sullying out purity by trading with the forces of dictatorship and oppression? Some of your recent comments if you would like your memory jogged:
At the end of the day it's a conflict between freedom and democracy vs tyranny and oppression. This struggle is global.
Secondly, we actually are now in an existential struggle, world-wide, between the democracy and freedom (not the fake "freedom" proclaimed by Trumpian neo-fascists) versus the forces of dictatorship and oppression (principally Russia and China, but not just them).
We need to face this square on: ultimately it is about regime change in Russia, however long it takes, because there will never be peace as long as Putin remains.
As an aside, I think it is these 2 comments in p[articular which rubbed people up the wrong way. If you were to have said the UK contributed to Indian democracy, then most probably wouldn't have commented. The fact you said the
only reason it exists there is offensive.
And you still seem to think the main reason for war was to stand up against fascism.
For example, the only reason that some semblance of democracy exists today in India is precisely because it was part of the British Empire.
Britain declared war on Germany after Hitler's army invaded Poland and thus made it clear that he wouldn't stop after his previous aggression. We did so to fight against fascism - i.e. to stand up for freedom. So clearly not nonsense.
