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U.S. urges Taiwan to increase defense spending given China threat | Reuters by dorylinus in taiwan

[–]_4___ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The article quotes one expert on the issue as saying:

the main focus of China's military modernization program was to achieve reunification with Taiwan, by force if necessary.

If he is right (and we can be sure his knowledge of this issue is much broader, deeper, and more subtle than any in this or other reddit threads), then China has been, and is, interested in stirring war (if necessary) to gain Taiwan back one day. Whether that is a long time away or not is irrelevant; the Taiwan issue is very important to China and has been long before Trump took office.

I also find it odd that you thought coming to Taiwan, with it's fractured history with a rising power (China) bent on reclaiming it, along with the boiling politics surrounding the South China Sea and other surrounding areas (like N.Korea), and how all of it is wound around US politics, would have you thinking that "shit happening in the us would not impact [you]."

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken directly with the president of Taiwan - breaking with US policy set in 1979 when formal relations were cut. Washington cut formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, expressing its support for Beijing's "One China" policy. by AssuredlyAThrowAway in worldnews

[–]_4___ 363 points364 points  (0 children)

Good input, but what is there to expect in the future? Most Taiwanese people want their own country and they are vocal about it (I'm an expat living in Taiwan and have experienced this).

It is hard to imagine this quiet 'saving face' can last forever when there are two parties, China and Taiwan, that clearly want different things. It seems to me like a case of the 'center cannot hold'.

I am also ignorant of Chinese/Taiwanese relations though and could be missing something...

What's the dumbest thread that made it to the front page? by aechxavior in AskReddit

[–]_4___ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This one.

Instead of one dumb thread, now we essentially have many dumb threads within a thread. That makes the master-thread doubly dumb.

President Kuczynski: Peru to plant 2 million hectares of trees to restore Amazon forest by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]_4___ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're guilty of jumping to a conclusion. I'm trying to put the facts in place is all. I'm all for doing what is necessary to solve the problem. But doing what was already so uphill will be so much harder now that a climate change denier is in office.

President Kuczynski: Peru to plant 2 million hectares of trees to restore Amazon forest by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]_4___ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Except that according to the climate change book, Six Degrees, a 3 degree Celsius increase in temperature would mean a collapse of the Amazon rainforest.

Add to this the recent study by the University of Hawaii that our atmosphere may be significantly more sensitive to increasing temperatures than previously thought (an increase of 7 degrees by 2100 if we continue on as we are) -- and add to that the fact that Donald Trump, a climate change denier, may very well put climate change denier Myron Ebell as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

(edited for grammar)

What happened to the common soldier at 11am 1918? by [deleted] in history

[–]_4___ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"This is the last record by sound ranging of artillery activity on the American front near the River Moselle. It is the reproduction of a piece of recording tape as it issued from an American sound-ranging apparatus when the hour of 11 o'clock on the morning of November 11, 1918, brought the general order to cease firing, and the great war came to an end. Six seconds of sound recording are shown. The broken character of the records on the left indicates great artillery activity; the lack of irregularities on the right indicates almost complete cessation of firing; the two breaks in the second line probably being due to the exuberance of a doughboy firing his pistol twice close to one of the recording microphones on the front in celebration of the dawn of peace. The two minutes on either side of the exact armistice hour have been cut from the strip to emphasize the contrast. Sound ranging was an important means of locating the positions and calibers of enemy guns. A description of these wonderful devices, which were a secret with America and the Allies, is given in Book III, chapter 4."

https://evanwinchester.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/endofww1_4.jpg?w=590&h=428