• WhatTrees@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    That’s a pretty wild guess given how China keeps doing military drills involving amphibious landings and flying into Taiwanese airspace/going into Taiwanese waters. You wouldn’t practice amphibious landings to prepare a defense against the US, you’d do that to prepare for an invasion. China talks a lot about not using its military outside its borders, which has been mostly true, but they see Taiwan as within their borders so it doesn’t really tell us much.

    If China wants to limit imports of goods from Taiwan they absolutely could, and it would be difficult for the US/Japan to respond to, but if by “restricting trade” you mean a blockade then that is an act of war that the US/Japan would respond to much more aggressively. Just like China would respond if we blockaded them.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      11 months ago

      Maybe it would look more like a blockade.

      How come it’s an act of war if China blockades Taiwan, but it’s not an act of war when America does the same thing to countries it sanctions?

      • WhatTrees@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        11 months ago

        By definition, a blockade is an act of war, regardless of who does it. I’m not sure why you’d think I wouldn’t call the US blockading some country and act of war (although I have a guess), just as much as I’d call Israel blockading Palestine as an act of war.

        The reason other countries don’t respond to a US blockade with all-out war is because we get other countries to agree to the blockade first and then do it as a block, which means the blockaded country would have to be prepared to fight the US plus its allies. Given the relative size of the countries’ militaries involved, the blockaded ones usually decide not to fight.

        Agreeing with the US’s decision to support Taiwan against China is not the same as support for all US military decisions, or even most of them.