The Chinese Army has vowed to take “effective measures” to prevent foreign meddling and attempts to establish the independence of Taiwan, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei said on Thursday in response to the US supplying weapons systems to Taipei.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, the Taiwan issue concerns China’s fundamental interests and does not tolerate outside interference,” Kefei insisted, adding that China’s army will take “effective measures to resolutely suppress any form of external interference and attempts by separatist forces to achieve independence for Taiwan, and will unwaveringly protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The statement comes after China lodged solemn representations with the US after its announcement on Tuesday of the approval of an estimated $95 million military package to Taiwan – the third of its kind since US President Joe Biden took office – which includes “training, planning, fielding, deployment, operation, maintenance, and sustainment of the Patriot system, associated equipment, and logistics support elements,” as well as ground support equipment and spare parts for the missile defense system.
The Patriot missile system? That thing that’s built in America, but fails all over the world? I think the Chinese are looking for an excuse to get mad here. After all, $95 million isn’t all that much money. To you or I, yes, but to even small governments like Taiwan, no.
Then again, it’s also not particularly important for the US or Taiwan either. That’s the thing about provocations. Often they’re unimportant shit like someone flicking some dust in your eye. Not life threatening, but it’s the thought that counts.
The warning from Beijing comes amid heightened tensions in the Pacific as the US and its regional allies raise fears that China, which sees Taiwan as an inalienable part of its sovereign territory, might take action to reunify Taiwan and mainland China, including “by force.”
NOTE: These are two Russian subs, a nuclear powered boomer on left, and an attack sub on right.
As if the US has any ability to “force project,” or whatever retarded buzzterms they’re using these days that mean “fight a serious war against China.” The Chinese have almost a hundred diesel-electric subs that have turned the South China Sea into essentially the world’s most dangerous minefield.
All of which assumes that the Chinese wouldn’t just be wrecking the USN fleet with airplanes launched from China. The distance between China and Taiwan is a bit less than 200 kilometers. That’s well within the ~500 km range of fighter planes, even without factoring in aerial refueling. How exactly is the US supposed to be “force projecting,” or doing literally anything at all if China invades Taiwan.
The US has no actual way of landing troops on a contested shore anymore. As Jeff Groom laid out in his book “American Cobra Pilot: A Marine Remembers a Dog and Pony Show,” the USMC’s entire mission is a joke. Their one job is to be landing infantry on contested shores and they can’t even do it anymore.
Marines on Iwo Jima. I didn’t want to show anything too grisly.
Way back in WW2, the Marines had these amphibious landing vehicles, the Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), that traveled at just about 12.5 kmph in the water. But they were dumped off about 500 meters from shore, really as close as the ship could get without beaching itself, so it only took a few minutes to get to shore. This was pretty good, since contested landing were, you know, contested.
LTV. Landing Vehicle Tracked.
The LTV was eventually replaced with a series of successors, culminating with the Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) in 1972.
Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV).
This is a hugely improved vehicle. It can travel at a blistering pace of 13.2 kmph in water.
Yes, you read that correctly. The new ones were literally less than a single kmph faster than the old ones. But hey, speed didn’t really matter for the old ones, why should it matter for the new ones?
Except that after WW2 we saw the invention of the anti-ship missile. This caused the USMC to institute a new policy, where they required the ships that carry these AAV’s to unload them from over the horizon, which is about 30 kilometers. But… the AAV’s travel at just 13 kmph.
Yes, in order for the Marines to do an amphibious assault, they need to get in their little cuckboats and then chill for a minimum of two hours while they hope that they still somehow have the element of surprise over the enemy.
But then the USMC got really worried about anti-ship missiles, so they instituted a new rule where they would only drop off the marines from something like 150 km from shore. They would do this in the AAV’s that travel at 13kmph.
Luckily, they recognized that this was absurd, and that they needed a faster landing craft. So what they did was they created the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) that has a blazing fast swimming speed of… 12 kmph.
They literally made it slower. Here’s a fantastic excerpt from Wikipedia that actually mentions Groom, albeit from an article I’d never seen before.
In May 2018 a former Marine officer, Jeff Groom, published an article concerning the ACV. Both BAE System’s and SAIC’s ACV 1.1 test vehicles could self-deploy and swim from a ship in contradiction to General Dunford’s testimony in March 2015. However, there is apparently no longer a need for speed on water as both test vehicles move through the water at 7 knots using traditional water propellers, the same speed as the legacy 1970s AAV. The article questioned the acquisition decision of a vehicle that swims at the same speed as the vehicle it replaces, carries fewer troops and is more expensive.[24]
Take a look at this piece of garbage.
Good luck sneaking up on the enemy with massed attacks of these things. It’s been too long since I read Groom’s book, but he calculated that it would take something like 13 hours for you to finally reach shore in one of these things.
We’ve gone from a few minutes in WW2, to having to pack a goddamn lunch now. 13 hours is such a long trip you need to install some fucking toilets for the cucks as they make their way to their inevitable deaths.
Thirteen hours at sea puttering about at 12 kmph. Thirteen fucking hours. You could starve to death in that timeframe.
This is how parasitical and retarded the US military bureaucracy is. It’s pretty reasonable to demand the Amphibious Assault Ship* to drop off the cucklets from 30 km away. But if you’re going to do that, drop the idiotic amphibious tank idea, and just give them little rubber dinghies. The problem of transferring infantry to land has been solved many times over. It’s called just having a goddamn boat, and telling them that they’re going to have to use their legs after that.
*The Amphibious Assault Ship is the gigantic carrier. Basically like an aircraft carrier, but for these ships. Well, they also carry helicopters.
LCAC
If you feel like getting fancy, the US Navy already has the boat for you, in terms of the Landing Craft Air Cushion. These have 4 turbine engines producing 4,000 hp, which is just atrocious fuel consumption. But in exchange for that, they’re fast, and they can carry over a hundred thousand pounds. That’s less than a single Abrams tank, but you could at least give the Marines some ATV’s to drive around in after they get to shore.
You could also do the exact same thing with the rubber dinghies the Navy Seals use. Just load a bunch of guys onto one of these. If you really wanted to, make a much bigger version that can carry a large ATV. Like, this is not an insurmountable problem if your goal is not to steal the taxpayers money, but instead to actually win wars.
As the US military fades in actual power, the privileged class becomes ever more delusional and idiotically aggressive. I can’t help but think that most of this propaganda is intended for domestic consumption. After all, if they keep sabre rattling with China, it might distract the goyim from realizing that China is already the world’s superpower.
Good, it’s about fucking time.
As an american in China it’s exciting.
Since Russia t’s been a constant talking point here about taking Taiwan and you hear kindergarteners throwing around the word “traitor” because obviously their parents are having very interesting conversations behind closed doors…
Anyhow, I’ve taken to telling people I’m German because the looks you get if you say you’re American aren’t nice. Though if you speak Chinese well enough people tend to be like “Oh, you must be one of the nice americans.” I mean they are Chinese after all, like canadians with… wait aren’t canadians already just chinese?
Well anyway.