How the protests remaining leaderless has put the Chicoms in a box. They also have to continue to be non violent.
[Update Friday afternoon]
Is the thirty-year engagement with China coming to an end? This is a separate national-security issue from Trump’s more general trade wars (which are good, and easy to win, so he says).
[Saturday-morning update]
How to defend Hong Kong? Start by defending Taiwan.
[Bumped]
[Monday noon update]
Beijing is manufacturing circumstances to justify a crack down.
[Bumped]
I’d like to hear some other ideas on how to get China to play fair. Using tit for tat and the full range of our powers is a good way to go but if anyone else has any ideas on how to do it better, I haven’t seen it.
One of the ways to put pressure on China is to increase arms sales to Taiwan.
I agree. So are freedom of navigation exercises. These are methods to put on military pressure, and Obama was trying diplomatic pressure. Trump continues these but expands into economic pressure.
An unexplored avenue is cultural pressure but our cultural institutions bow down to China and are made up of people who not only hate our own country but think the Chinese fusion of communism and fascism is pretty cool. Cultural pressure is important because, IMO, it is the root of the problem. Chinese society is so corrupt that getting them to change their ways in doing business means huge cultural change. This wouldn’t be good for the communist party though.
falsum seditiosis
Would be the “by-the-(little-red)-book” answer to put the “People’s Armed Police” into the streets of HK.
I’m hoping I’m wrong and Xi will kick the can down the road, by setting up a commission to review the complaint. But unless the West shows a united front and willingness to undergo some financial pain, possibly a world recession, I don’t see the motivation. EU countries offering military aid to Taiwan and sending their navies to conduct right of passage exercises in the South China Sea would certainly help! The US position is already clear and done. Unfortunately, the can may only get kicked as far as sometime after Oct 1.
Out of the whole EU, England and France are the only ones that even have ships that could operate that far from home port. They’re not willing to forego what little Iran is capable of spending, one mildly worded sentence from Xi and they would all fall into line with their noses on the ground.
On defending Taiwan, the $8 billion F16 deal should help. Get them to pay for their own defense! But do offer it.