I'm sure they receive intelligence from Five Eyes countries. I don't believe that it's anything remotely comparable to the actual breadth of FVEY data. Taiwan is deeply, deeply riddled with PRC intelligence at every level, but especially military and intelligence. It's why the US won't give them the F-35 until they have confirmation that the PRC got their hands on one some other way, and it's why they're not going to be sharing the very large amount of intel that Five Eyes governments have access to. All intel shared with Taiwan on any sort of systemic basis should be assumed to be acquired by PRC intelligence within the week it's shared.
This is an astute position but rarely if ever talked about in the West's public self-congratulatory, no, ejaculatory support for everything Taiwanese.
It's my belief that Taiwan is just playing both sides, and, on another level, is really just another face of China to enable under-the-table backroom dealing with the West / anti-China brigade.
And, take it one step more, that everyone on all sides above some level knows that, and still wants it / needs it to exist that way.
Who else would they rely on, against those who menace & threaten them? Where else would they get intelligence?
An island is surrounded by a military force. Who else is there in the world for them to talk to.
I got flagged for saying this in about the same terms, with a tad more emotional more slant. But this is just the straight facts. This is the situation. This is what's being done to this island, to this place that considers themselves & has ruled themselves as a reasonable decent Republic for a long time now.
And it raises the neoconservative dilemna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism), the question of how interventionalist should America be & whether the world has an obligation to try to help suffering people & whether anyone should do anything or not.
I'm a hacker. So I love to ask: what other framings do folks see? I obviously have a stance here, but I think I've done an ok job laying out the basics of the situation, shown the tensions that exist. What other framings are there? What else sounds right to you? Let's test the metal here; isn't that exchange of viewpoints the very Hacker spirit itself?
Call me cynical, but I think our interests in Taiwan have more to do with our dependence upon their semiconductor industry, much like our interests in the Middle East are driven by their oil.
The US never capitalized super heavily on Iraqi nor Afgahni oil. I too definitely do think that "What Barry Says" view is ultra real, a real concern, but also, it seems like there were just general neoconservative interests in being interventionalist, in using might to change not great situations.
There's definitely a rival power situation here well beyond just semiconductor interests. Making it not easy for China to be ever expansionist, making it harder for a scary authoritarian power to subvert, manipulate, & control a reasonably self running republic is good cause too, if again not entirely altruistic.
