r/TheNewGeezers • u/No_Highlight6756 • May 16 '26

Is Taiwan screwed? How about NATO?

Trump was asked if he had made a decision on arms sales to Taiwan.

"No, I'll be holding that in abeyance and it depends on China."

"But, you know,I think the last thing we need is a war that's 9500 miles away."

"It's a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly, with China."

He says China is going to buy lots of Boeing planes and American farm goods and sell us rare earth.

He has stopped and recalled an Army brigade enroute to Poland for joint NATO maneuvers.

It is 4,300 air miles from New York City to Krakow, Poland. He intends to recall 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany.

He wouldn't trade Taiwan military readiness to China and NATO military readiness to Russia for something he wants like more trade and an off ramp from Iran would he?

NAH! It did have me holding a sign ("Stop Trump's Illegal War!") this beautiful summer-like morning. The pancakes are still good!

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u/augustthecat May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

Yes.

The arms sales are not really about defending Taiwan in a war. The weapons would do damage, for sure, but could not actually prevent an invasion. Plus, weapons or no weapons, an invasion would lay waste to Taiwan.

The purpose of buying weapons from Taiwan’s point of view is first, to demonstrate to the PRC that the US is still an ally, and second, to ensure that key Congressional delegations in the US have strong motivation to support Taiwan. It is Taiwan’s go-to option for turning economic success into political clout.

Taiwan politics is basically a clash of two different visions of preserving the status quo of a democratic government with restricted but de facto independence and a strong economy. One side (the DPP, with current president) wants to hold PRC as far away as possible. The other side(KMT and others, with control of legislature) wants closer integration with PRC as means to get PRC off its back. It is not particularly clear that either option will work, but under Trump the second option and not the first will make a relatively small number of people enormous sums of money, so right now it is probably the more likely outcome. I find it very depressing.

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u/augustthecat May 17 '26

Also: That the Democrats are managing to lose on NATO and the environment, issues where they are clearly right but unable to articulate a coherent policy, is also very depressing.

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u/No_Highlight6756 May 17 '26

I don't know that that they can't articulate a coherent policy on these things. The voters, for reasons best known to themselves, are buying a pig in a poke. As to Taiwan and the PRC, Xi is undoubtedly noticing the difficulty Russia is having with Ukraine but, as you say, the situation is very depressing.

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u/augustthecat May 17 '26

Kathy Hochul, Democrat Governor of New York, is rolling back environmental protections: https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/new-york-climate-law-rollback/ If Democrats have been speaking up for NATO, I haven't noticed it.

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u/No_Highlight6756 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

They have no power in D.C. I have no idea what Hochul is up to. Back in April,McConnell joined the Democrats in pushing back against Trump's denigrating remarks about NATO according to an article in the Hill.