12-12-2016, 01:57 PM
(12-12-2016, 12:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(12-12-2016, 08:51 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: With Trump questioning the "One China" policy, China has responded by calling him a 'child' and 'ignorant'. He's been called a lot worse of course.
Through the elections, lots of predictions came out that he couldn't possibly succeed, that real soon now the American People would wake up and choose an establishment business as usual candidate. The dissatisfied American voters backed him, though. It seems he is going to buck the establishment business as usual approach internationally as well. We'll just have to see if the Chinese Communist party can do better than the Democrats or Trump's Republican primary opponents.
Bush 43 was often caught in a 'deer in the headlights' look. I had the impression that main line press photographers looked to catch that look and editors tended to select such shots as they reinforced the idea that he was an idiot out of his depth.
Trump has a smug all out grin that seems to be gathering press time along similar lines.
I wonder whether Taiwan would risk becoming a cats-paw in a mad effort to overthrow the rule of the Communist Party of China. I can imagine the People's Republic of China offering some arrangement to Taiwan -- keep the democracy, the free-enterprise system, human rights, and rule of law... but give up the pretense of independence separate from China. Special Economic Zone, Taiwan. which gets the military protection of the People's Republic of China. Or be 'Finlandized', which was not the worst fate that a country could have as a neighbor of the Soviet Union.
China has overbuilt housing... it might come in handy in the event that America should many of us Americans have fear of labor camps, torture chambers, or 'disappearance' in the night. Or should Donald Trump and his Congressional puppets establish an Apartheid system. Under an Apartheid system, Chinese-Americans and many Vietnamese-Americans and thai-Americans (who are often ethnic Chinese) might find China more attractive than the USA.
The problem with the last is that China is trending more authoritarian too.
Taiwan has two political parties. One adheres to the "one China" "policy", the other wants to be formally independent. At the moment, the latter is in power, or the call would never have happened. Taiwan might not want to follow in the footsteps of Hong Kong, though.