
Beijing is planning world’s longest rail tunnel to link Taiwan to mainland - dosy
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2158271/strait-ahead-how-beijing-planning-worlds-longest-rail-tunnel-link
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Freak_NL
> […] rising political tensions between the self-ruled island and Beijin […]
> mean that the scheme is unlikely to come to fruition any time soon. However,
> some researchers said it was possible that Beijing would start work on the
> project in a unilateral, and largely symbolic move.

Sometimes I wonder if we're nearing a time when we'll see China simply _do a
Crimea_ and annex Taiwan when geopolitical circumstances mean no outside
interference is likely to occur — outside of the vehement disagreements and
strong protests of course, but no military action; nor anything more than
token sanctions.

But at least the Crimeans got a new bridge out of it…

~~~
21
The US never quite supported Ukraine the way they support Taiwan, they will be
forced to have an response.

US will surely impose tough sanctions on China, which would be much more
disastrous to them than the sanctions US imposed on Russia after Crimea.

EU will likely join in.

What will China actually gain from this? Not much besides scoring some
political gains at home which they don't need anyway.

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thwawayjuju
From a military perspective, Taiwan is a extremely important to China because
of where it is located. Their fear is that the US would use Taiwan as a base
of operation to refuel and attack China. It’s in their best interest to
reclaim that land.

Like all politicians, domestic policies are usually harder to gain political
points vs foreign policies. It is also much harder to fix when problems arise.
This is why head of states like the US president have traditionally spent more
time on foreign policy. All leaders think about their legacy. If Xi can
reclaim Taiwan, he will be remembered for decades. That is powerful motivation
for any leader, especially one that is elderly.

The US is currently run by a lunatic. Are you so sure Trump would impose
sanctions? Most of his decisions are made in a fit of rage, rather than
thoughtful thinking. The fact he met with Kim, should tell you something about
his decision making. The problem is Americans has played this big brother role
for the last 50 years, but now there is a potential contender on the
playground. I am not sure the US can do much here considering China is cash
rich to withstand any sanctions you impose on them. China can use Trumps
playbook too if they wanted like subsidising farmers, but they haven’t cause
they don’t need to.

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dogma1138
The US has South Korea, Japan and Guam. Taiwan isn’t of military strategic
importance to the US nor would it likely serve as a base for any assault on
the mainland.

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thwawayjuju
I said strategic importance to China. Not the USA. South Korea, Japan, and
Guam are a drop in the bucket compared to China in terms of military might and
economy, unfortunately.

~~~
dogma1138
Those all host US military bases, Guam isn’t even a nation it’s a US
territory.

I suggest you look up US deployments and see why Taiwan while is of a huge
cultural, political and ideological significance isn’t that much of a
strategic significance in a conflict there are a lot of assets in theater
already and the US while being a military backer of Taiwan limits its presence
and support in order to never make them significant enough to justify an
invasion.

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thwawayjuju
This feels like a forced marriage. Where one side is willing and the other
side is forced.

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rqs
Hehe, an underwater tunnel huh?

How about to build an underwater tunnel between the mainland and Hainan[0]?

Oh wait somebody mentioned it[1] at 2010, and someone else did it[2] again at
2018.

Well, then good luck to that tunnel.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait)

[1] (Reference) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-
Soh...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-Sohu-1)
(2010)

[2] (Reference)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiongzhou_Strait#cite_note-4)
(2018)

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beerlord
Reminds me of British fears of a Nazi chunnel being dug to invade the island.
Apparently it could have been used to transport 300,000 men per day.

[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/britain-feared-nazi-
chunn...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/britain-feared-nazi-
chunnel-1417370.html)

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adamnemecek
Taiwan would be stupid to agree to this.

