text: ⚡️🇺🇸🇨🇳 America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan“We can fend them off for one or two weeks but no longer,” says Si-fu Ou of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a think-tank. Unless Taiwanese forces resist steadfastly, everything else is futile. But, by the same token, Taiwan cannot hope to defend itself in the long run without American help.As an island, Taiwan is not just harder to invade than Ukraine, but also harder to support. Its ports might be destroyed by China, its own forces or even America’s. Attempting to bring reinforcements or supplies to the island as Chinese missiles rain down would be almost as difficult as attempting to invade.At the very least, America and Taiwan would need help from allies. Japan, which hosts tens of thousands of American troops, has capable forces. The Philippines is weak militarily but close to Taiwan. Australia is closely allied but modestly armed and farther away. Countries in the Pacific could provide rear bases. More distant allies, such as Britain, might send naval vessels. A big uncertainty is how much India would help. A lot would depend on how the crisis unfolds and who is blamed for it.📎 The Economist (http://archive.today/avpvC)archive.ph (http://archive.today/avpvC)America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan | The Economistarchived 9 Mar 2023 15:08:37 UTC