Quote:
Originally Posted by Hondaracer
If China wants to take Taiwan they will. Eventually Russia will take what they want want Ukraine based only on wearing them down.
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In the foreseeable future at least until the semiconductor manufacturing world changes dramatically, US along with the rest of the Western World have a strong interest in ensuring that Taiwan doesn't fall into Chinese hands. Not only is Taiwan a critical part of the First Island Chain, it is also the manufacturing juggernaut for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. I recently read that Taiwan accounts for ~60% of the world's semiconductor manufacturing, but in addition to that figure, it also manufacturers ~90% of all the advanced semiconductors (below 7nm). This IP along with the economic impact it carries mean the West is not going to let China claim the Island nation without a fight, be it figuratively or literally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Great68
Allowing Russia to keep illegally annexed land wouldn't be enough of "tossing them a bone" as it is, you want to ease sanctions as well? That'd be like giving a bully at school a reward for punching the small kid.
Fuck that, sanctions should be kept until territory is returned, otherwise they should stay indefinitely. Let the price they pay for taking that land be them going back into the economic stone age.
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It is less of a matter of rewarding the bully for punching a small kid. Instead, it has more to do with the West being concerned for themselves on energy costs, economy, internal stability, etc. Also, it may or may not allow Russia to keep the illegally annexed land under a ceasefire proposal.
On a personal level, I am of course all for having / forcing Russia return all the illegal annexed land back to Ukraine. At a practical level on the world stage, however, world leaders may or may not be interested in that. Crimea was illegally annexed in 2014 as well, and the West slapped a bunch of sanctions on Russia too. But did they stop trading with Russia? Much of Europe continued to buy energy products from Russia to provide it with the financial resources that it had prior to the Ukraine war.
World politics is a dirty business. The ceasefire scenario I described is merely something that I see as a potential possibility. And even if it were to go through, the West is still gonna want to lay on those sanctions to keep weakening and crippling Russia. It'll be kind of like how US sanctions have dramatically crippled Iran.