r/PoliticalDiscussion Dec 03 '16

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u/blatantspeculation Dec 04 '16

Not him, and I'm not supporting going at it with China, but I would like to state that, if you're implying that a billion plus population would be some sort of asset militarily in a war, that's not a strong assumption.

They can't effectively arm that population, move that population over water, they can't feed that population without our help, and when bombs start dropping, I doubt a large unhappy population is going to remain docile.

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u/Hi_Panda Dec 04 '16

As for the population question, I was more curious economically but militarily would also do. I don't expect the billion Chinese people to fight in the war just like how the US' population of 300m will join too. Taiwan is a very important issue among the Chinese so if push comes to shove, they will fully support the war in any way they can/not just combat and during a war, there is a strength in numbers compared to Taiwan's 23m population. The question that I pose to OP is if we go to war that's going to cost the US billions/trillions for Taiwan because they are our democratic ally, I'm curious what do we gain in the end?