Geo Hand on Current Events: U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan Upsetting China — But Who Cares?

The tension between the United States and China is hardly a mystery. The principal rubs between the two nations stem from mutual accusations of spying, the lingering trade war, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and the more recent world infestation by the novel coronavirus, whose origin irrefutably points to mainland China. But, the only country in defense of China is China itself. In fact, it’s simply countering America’s accusation by insisting that the virus is, in fact, America-induced. The old I’m-rubber-you’re-glue defense.

With America maintaining its posture as that of rubber and China inevitably applying to itself the role of glue, we stand to finish strong on the issue of the pandemic origin.

Recall now that America supports Taiwan, but only as a way to negatively affect the PRC. We could care less about a bunch of Chinese on an island other than the conduit it presents for acting out against the PRC. Remember now how Taiwan came to be: It was Mao Tse Dong against Chiang Kai Shek struggling in a Chinese civil war when the Japanese attacked China.

Chiang focused his effort on combatting the Japanese while Mao essentially laid low, recovering from the months of fighting Chiang’s nationalist army. When the Japanese were finally put in check, the recumbent army of Mao, freshly recovered from combat, resumed the fight with Chiang, forcing him to seek refuge on the island of Famosa, now known as Taiwan, the Republic of China!

Mainland China wants Taiwan back with nearly every atom of its being. America knows that and backs Taiwan economically and militarily. For example, it routinely engages in high technology weapons sales to Taiwan.

Nevertheless, whereas sales to Taiwan have traditionally been of more moderate levels, the U.S. has recently stepped up its sales to the country at a pace that is alarming and aggressive to the Xi Jin Ping administration. The weapon sales to Taiwan had previously been spaced out in a way that ensured a minimum impact on tensions between the U.S. and China. In contrast, recently, America has made seven simultaneous weapons sales to Taiwan. These sales have included mines, cruise missiles, and drones. It is clear that the U.S. has lost sensitivity to China’s druthers as it steps up to a more aggressive posture against China.

I’m put in mind of one of the last projects I was in charge of while working at the Nevada Test Site years ago. It was technically a cruise missile target surrogate, a supersonic drone that acted the part of a cruise missile. It was meant to give customers an authentic cruise missile target to practice shooting down. And it came at a fraction of the price of an actual cruise missile.

Since the missile was controlled by a pilot operator on the ground, it was classed as a drone or an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Recall that typically, cruise missiles are programmed for flight to targets prior to launch with no way to control them once airborne.

I recall distinctively that the pace of the project’s development was governed by the date that it was needed for initial demonstration in… wait for it… Taiwan!

My cruise missile drone project was scheduled for eight test flights prior to deploying to Taiwan. Six of the test flights were unsuccessful, three of those being catastrophic failures resulting in the complete destruction of the missile. When the missile went to Taiwan, it only had two short successful flights behind it. The understanding I had was that the missile flew successfully in Taiwan.

As Reuters had reported, Taiwan’s desire to buy weapons increased after President Tsai Ing-wen’s reelection in January. President Tsai Ing-wen has made strengthening Taiwan’s defenses a top priority.

Trump’s support of Taiwan and opposition to China continued along with staunch economic sanctions, intelligence gathering, and prolonged investigation into the exact origin of the planet-crippling coronavirus pandemic.

By Almighty God and with honor,
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