But how did Taiwan get into it’s present predicament of having China breathing down its neck continuously? The brutal truth is that modern day Taiwan is a helpless victim of American ambivalent foreign policy. For decades the USA has poured large amounts of money into China in the form of overseas foreign investment. “As the world struggled to contain the coronavirus crisis, foreign direct investment in the United States plummeted 49% in 2020 while investment in China rose 4%, making China the largest recipient of foreign inflows for the first time, according to a report released Sunday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.” (Forbes, January 24, 2021). Without American money and investment The CCP wouldn’t be in a position to threaten Tiawan militarily or otherwise.
Within American military circles the Chinese threat to Taiwan looms larger as time progresses. “The top U.S. military commander for the Asia-Pacific region, Adm. Philip Davidson, raised eyebrows at a recent Senate hearing when he suggested China could invade Taiwan within the next six years. The nominee to replace Davidson at the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, then went a step further, telling the same committee last week that in his view, “This problem is much closer to us than most think and we have to take this on.”” (World Politics Review, Elliott Waldman, Thursday April 1, 2021.) Will America have the will and the military capability to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion if push comes to shove? Maybe and maybe not!
What is abundantly clear however is that such an excursion by Mainland China would not only be extremely expensive it would lead to massive loss of life. Furthermore, although it is currently assumed that China would overwhelm Taiwan’s Airforce within a short period of time. No one can actually predict exactly how long it would take The PLA to subdue the Taiwanese population. Consequently, this would be a prolonged conflict. Because Taiwan’s army, cannot be categorized as a pushover when pitted against China’s military potential. The Taiwanese have a long history of fierce political independence and resilience. This is not a country to be categorized as the collapsing South Vietnamese forces attempting to resist the Vietcong. Or the demoralized, collapsing Iraqi military when facing ISIS (4-10 June 2014). Or the unmotivated crumbling Afghanistan military when pitted against the Taliban (August 2021).
Any attempt by the CCP to invade Taiwan could easily turn into a nightmare for China, for many reasons. The first is that there are many unknowns. No Island similar to Taiwan has ever been successfully invaded. “Taiwan is a rugged, heavily urbanized nation of 23.6 million people. The country of Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China) is made up of over 100 islands, most too tiny to see on the map. Many of Taiwan’s outer islands bristle with missiles, rockets, and artillery guns. Their granite hills have been honeycombed with tunnels and bunker systems….the coastal terrain here is a defender’s dream come true.” (The Diplomat, May 26, 2021).
Most military experts feel that China’s increasing fire power would render any U.S. attempt to intervene military in a China Taiwan conflict, futile. “China’s massive arms buildup has raised doubts about America’s ability to defend Taiwan if a war broke out, reflecting a shifting balance of power in the Pacific where American forces once dominated, U.S. officials and experts say. In simulated combat in which China attempts to invade Taiwan, the results are sobering and the United States often loses, said David Ochmanek, a former senior Defense Department official who helps run war games for the Pentagon at the RAND Corp. think tank. In tabletop exercises with America as the “blue team” facing off against a “red team” resembling China, Taiwan’s air force is wiped out within minutes, U.S. air bases across the Pacific come under attack, and American warships and aircraft are held at bay by the long reach of China’s vast missile arsenal, he said.” (NEWS, March 27, 2021).
Is Taiwan’s case really hopeless? After all China is and is quickly becoming a more formidable military assailant as the years pass. There have been similar scenarios in history. When faced with an indomitable military foe. The Russians retreated and burned the City of Moscow in 1812. That was Tsar Alexander 1’s way of defeating Napoleon’s mighty army, and it worked. In 1588 King Phillip 11, the rich and powerful Catholic Sovereign of Spain. Sent a powerful naval armada against England. During the reign of the protestant monarch, Elizabeth 1. The king of Spain had geopolitical and religious motives for his actions. Unfortunately for him however, things just didn’t work out exactly as he had planned. “Even the Deity seemed to be more English than Spanish, and in the end the fleet, buffeted by gales, was dashed to pieces as it sought to escape home via the northern route around Scotland and Ireland. Of the 130 ships that had left Spain, perhaps 85 crept home; 10 were captured, sunk, or driven aground by English guns, 23 were sacrificed to wind and storm, and 12 others were “lost, fate unknown.” (Britannica, The Clash With Spain).
Based upon China’s recent history of persecuting Christians, destroying temples, churches, and mosques, and other acts of sacrilege. Which are in direct defiance of heaven and many other acts of impiety. I just can’t see how China’s invasion of Taiwan would soon become a reality. Interestingly enough there are approximately one million Christians in Taiwan and combined with the other religious entities there present. I’m certain today that they are praying against any such Chinese military endeavor. In fact commonsense convinces me that prayers are ascending to heaven designed to frustrate and even defeat any CCP ambition to occupy or control Taiwan. That was exactly what king Hezekiah did during his reign in Judea. When his nation was under an existential threat from the emperor Sennacherib. His prayer is inspirational.
“And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have hurled their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.” (2 Kings 18:15-19).
China’s president XI Jinping is our 21st Century Sennacherib. Now he enjoys the unique privilege of being addressed by the divine Potentate. After all the indignities he has heaped upon people of faith, and the insults he has hurled against The Lord Almighty. “Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!… ‘Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass…‘But I know your rising* and your sitting, your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will turn you back on the way by which you came.” (2 Kings 18:22, 25, 27-28). History has a way of repeating itself. Based upon all the natural calamities and disasters currently unfolding in China on a daily basis. If their fulminations against The Island of Taiwan are not just so much communist propaganda. Designed to divert the minds of their citizenry from their terrible daily woes. Then all of their verbal hot air will inevitably turn out to be just that, meaningless communist propaganda.
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