IL-18 GOPer supports nukes to Taiwan

[Stranger in a strange land]

It'd still be a loss of face for the Chinese government. They decided ages ago that their policy would be to treat Formosa as a rebellious province. If they back off that now, how do they treat their other provinces who want out?

And to why it's such a big deal, check out the ROC's GDP, their South China Sea claims, and where they sit off the coast. All of that could be the PRC's.

problem is, no other provinces really want out (except maybe Tibet and Xinjiang, but they were never really part of China until the mid-20th century), especially with the economy booming as it is. China's doing well now; a lot better than it was 15 or 20 years ago, and the leaders in Beijing aren't going to mess that up by trying to retake Taiwan.

[Stranger in a strange land]

problem is, no other provinces really want out (except maybe Tibet and Xinjiang, but they were never really part of China until the mid-20th century), especially with the economy booming as it is. China's doing well now; a lot better than it was 15 or 20 years ago, and the leaders in Beijing aren't going to mess that up by trying to retake Taiwan.

That's a really, really big except. And it doesn't particularly matter whether "they were never really part of China until the mid-20th century"; they're sure as hell part of it now and the PRC is not going to let valuable pieces of its country go. Xinjiang/Tibet contribute ~$44 billion to the Chinese GDP, equivalent to Angola (1.7% of national GDP). Not an extremely significant portion of the national GDP, but big enough. The ROC's GDP is ~$356 billion, a figure that would be 12% of Chinese GDP if the two countries were reunited. That's why the PRC will never accept there being two countries; economics prevents it.

obviously. and China has the abillity to stop either from taking any steps towards independence, and barring some catastrophic collapse, will for the foreseeable future.