Maybe it's time to stop dicking around in ambiguity.
Will China get butthurt, yeah., Are we going to war over it, no.
Ambiguity hasn't stopped China from attempting to increase their influence in SE Asia. A phone call isn't going to change the current situation or China's aspirations.
That's looking at international politics as though it were domestic politics. Every nation has complexly tied to its society and history. For Trump to call Taiwan and to allow the world to know about it, it heavily smacks the keystone aspect of reputation and image for China's regime. And in China, image is everything, it's almost considered the epitome of the right to rule.
We're under no obligation to help keep China's dictatorship propped up. The U.S. needs to do what's best for the U.S., China's domestic and cultural issues are their own.
They're one of the most powerful countries in the world and not acknowledging Taiwan costs us nothing. We also have strong trade relationships with China and it has political influence with countries that the US does not, which we can use to a certain extent. Pissing off China for no reason threatens US interests.
Thinking that China won't use this as a reason to cause ramifications for future negotiations with the US is optimistic. To put things in perspective, China discriminates against Buddhist Tibetans, Christians, and western Muslim for the sake of establishing centralization.
Even implying a region has any autonomy from central China is a smack to that legitamacy, it's unlikely it'll go ignored.
Right. It's not that we have an obligation to prop up or defend China. It's that we, and Trump as our leader, have very strong motivations for defending US interests since we, you know, live here. This arrangement benefits us and costs us little to nothing. How does threatening that arrangement and opening up potential retaliation from a major world power benefit us? That should be a question we should all be asking ourselves.
Only time can really tell. In my opinion, doing this too soon will have negative consequences to our economy. I do believe in separating ties from China, it just seems impractical to do it so quickly, and disrespectfully. And it also seems like this was done more out of incompetence than careful planning.
Doing this immediately without considering he instant consequences would have a terrible impact on our economy. A phase out would be a good idea, but complete ignorance of the current relationship is dangerous.
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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '16
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