re: #203 Belafon

Tell him to think of it this way: we’re keeping China placate by not letting Taiwan declare independence, but we’re protecting Taiwan to keep it from being controlled by China. The equivalent to Russia would be us having troops in Ukraine but still having Russia say it’s in charge.

Thanks. Great way of looking at it. In a sense by acknowledging the PRC, we are in fact keeping Taiwan more safe than we did with the previous policy. It does help that old hardliners like Mao on the PRC side and Chiang on the ROC side have long since passed on. As I said, I think the PRC really wants to be seen as the legitimate government of China and that’s what they want most from our government and as much as I don’t like the PRC, it’s smart international relations to do that. Just as it’s smart to be wary of Putin given his contempt for NATO and his neighbors borders.