[borgdefenser]

I am reading a great book right now.

The Tao of Deception: Unorthodox Warfare in Historic and Modern China by Ralph Sawyer.

I am not sure I would listen to anyone but Ralph Sawyer at this point in English on the subject.

China is not going to invade Taiwan the way the US would invade Hawaii in the same situation.

That is just not how China conducts warfare.

Taiwan is another level with all this. What matters is the PLA views it as reclaiming. They have to win by soft power and not "win" like the US going in and blowing the shit out of Iraq.

Disturb the water and catch a fish.

In that context, something like DeepSeek is a much bigger deal as far as the objectives. 1000X more than this decoy.

[red-iron-pine]

nah.

China built several -- several, like 8+ -- landing ships designed to support an amphibious assault. if soft power was their goal and primary method they wouldn't have spent the resources.

while they may not ever do it, a very direct, very violent invasion is absolutely on the table. Taiwan may only even be a secondary objective, since #1 would be sinking the US Navy and shifting the hegemonic balance; they'll get to Taiwan when they can after that.

[jvanderbot]

Having a large military capability and not using it is ... Soft power? Is that fair?

[mc32]

Soft power is economic and cultural levers. Hardware is actual military power.

[mesofile]

One term that's specific to this concept of wielding a real but unused military capability is "fleet in being" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_in_being

[suraci]

what you said is how China planed before 2019, reality's development makes it impossible to act as previously planned, now, there's 0 chance that the CCP can take back Taiwan without bombs

however, it really depends on the definitions of 'reclaim' and 'win'

China's purpose is not only to take the land, but also to 'reunite' taiwanese people, so you're right about they are going to need to use soft power to achieve this, so yes, it will not be like what the US did to Hawaii and Iraq

btw, I briefly looked through the book you mentioned and was surprised to find that, compared to other Westerners, the author has a very good understanding of China's war history and philosophy. Although it is somewhat one-sided, Chinese military philosophy is very different before and after the Han Dynasty

[neonsunset]

The soft power should read here as Uyghur concentration camps.

[suraci]

you are right

this is the real soft power

this is the power makes you believe there're genocide in xinjiang without any solid evidence

this is the power makes every discussion about gaza were flagged here

the real power, it's soft, but it's so strong

wonderful, isn't it?

[neonsunset]

100 RMB army will be the first to be turned into landfill when China gets a bit more ambitious. Much like what is currently happening to their North Korean counterparts in the north of my country.

[suraci]

funny, because it seems like the president of south korea is more dangerous than DPRK to the country...

[cempaka]

It's pretty funny that Westerners are still going on about this largely invented issue after underwriting a brutal genocide in Gaza for almost 18 months. Won't someone please think of the oppressed Muslims!

[Ruthalas]

This seems like quintessential whataboutism. I think expanding on how that concern is "largely invented" would serve your point better. I, at least, would be interested.

[fspeech]

It shows up so naturally that one may think it is not whataboutism at work, even though the reasoning is often not well argued. We could choose to see it not as a moral judgement, but as questioning the justification of efforts pushing for conflicts with China.