The island of Formosa has for long been an ally of the United States. It holds the remnants of the Kuomintang party that lost the war to Mao Tse Tung and escaped to Formosa. The Americans normalized relations with China and agreed to cut down contacts with Formosa. They also accepted the one-China policy. America has, however, passed the Taiwan Travel Act that facilitates easier travel by officials between Taiwan and the USA. Yahoo news has reported that this infuriated China which has said that it will use a military option if Taiwan declares independence.
Chinese president's threat
Trump is a strong man with committed views in line with his political thought. He has now liberalized the coming to America of officials of the Taiwan government. He has also passed legislation to allow American warships to visit the ports in Taiwan. This has infuriated the Chinese President who, in his address to the 3000 delegates at the People Party Conference, stated that China would never accept Taiwan as an independent country. He went on to state that if any attempt was made by Taiwan for independence it would be crushed by force.
The situation in the South China Sea is red hot and the Chinese Carrier Group headed by the aircraft carrier Liaoning, sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
This sent alarm bells ringing in Taipei which activated its Operational Readiness Platform (ORP) and fighter jets took off to shadow the Chinese fleet. Taipei has reported that the aircraft on the Chinese career were only carrying out routine flights and no danger was expected
Taiwan and independence
The new President of Taiwan favors Independence.
The Chinese will not tolerate it and have threatened to go to war in case that happens. Donald Trump is very clear that the main threat in Southeast Asia is China. He is going about meticulously in trying to contain China in the South China Sea, something which Obama failed to do
Taiwan, which has the remnants of the Kuomintang party which ran away from the mainland is propped up by the USA.
China has vowed to reclaim Formosa which it says is an integral part of China. The Chinese are feverishly building up their strength and plan to match the United States in the near future.
Future
it will be interesting to watch what happens once the Chinese achieve military parity with America. The problem of Formosa is not going to be solved easily and has the potential of causing a military clash. The Chinese are not going to give up their dreams of unifying the province with the mainland, and the Americans cannot handover Formosa to China.
