Martin Capital's Rod D. Martin discusses U.S. and Chinese strategies for Taiwan, and how the island nation fits into the Trump Administration's larger strategy to contain the CCP and prevent a war.
An excellent job by Dr. Rod Martin on the NTD Newsroom! America's largest ever arms deal with Taiwan which amounts to about $12 billion dollars is part of President Trump's brilliant strategy to contain China. Unlike Joe Biden, Donald Trump does NOT want to be reckless and start World War III and a nuclear Holocaust that would wipe out all life on Earth. So, he has not done anything to needlessly provoke China, has expressed a willingness to make peace with China and has
made sure to honor the One China Policy while
also arming Taiwan and protecting its unofficial independence and blockading Venezuela and Cuba's shadow oil trade which will hurt China's economy big time.
Taiwan is the Israel of East Asia and has been a staunch U.S. ally since 1949. They are a vibrant liberal democracy and have a booming free-market capitalist economy. They are world leaders in technology They have world-class semiconductor and ICT sectors, robust R&D investment and strong research institutes. Strategically, Taiwan is also important because it is only 100+ miles from the Chinese mainland. China has threatened to invade Taiwan but have never done it. This is for two main reasons. 1) They don’t want a nuclear war with the United States either. 2) Their economy is in a complete tailspin.
China’s birth rate is falling and finds itself in a demographic crisis that will take decades to reverse. They are suffering from a deep real estate crisis, high local government debt, weak consumer confidence and spending, and persistent deflation. On top of that, trade tensions with the U.S. have hurt exports. Returning to Taiwan, they’ve been a reliable ally to the United States since the Cold War and were a bulwark against Communism in East Asia. Chiang Kai-shek and his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo were no angels, but they were staunch friends to America during the Cold War. The former was also a loyal ally to us in fighting the Japanese in WWII when he was leader of the Republic of China. The Nationalists did much more to help fight Japanese Nationalism in WWII than the Communists did.
The Republic of China warts and all, was worlds better than China under Mao and the Communists. The esteemed Professor Bruce Gilley in a February 12, 2024 piece in The American Conservative, did a great job laying out in why the Chinese Republic was nowhere near as bad as it has been made out to be. The Republican era in China for those of you who don’t know lasted from 1912 to 1949. The Republican era witnessed major progress on all fronts, economic, social and political. During that time the foundations for a modern, industrialized economy were being laid and a flourishing capitalism emerged.
The distinctly Chinese modern state that emerged in the republic and is used by Taiwan also emerged with five branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial, civil service, and anti-corruption. Classical culture was nourished while social progress leapt forward especially women with the banning of polygamy and foot binding and the entry of women into the bureaucracy. Civil society flourished, elections were held and bureaucratic state began to provide public health, education, infrastructure, policing, prisons, divorce, and statistics. Contrary to Communist myth, peasant poverty was NOT a real problem. The population rose during this time from 410 million to 540 million and a new urban middle class emerged.
This noble experiment only ended because of the Japanese invasion and World War II. This forced the KMT into a war posture that would serve to undermine its modernization project. The KMT furthermore was conservative but it was NOT fascist. There was no powerful all-controlling state, mass indoctrination, no mass movements, little censorship, and hardly any police suppression of political opposition. There was no “New Man” being forged from the crooked timber of Chinese humanity and the youth movements they had were never anything more than a sideshow. The KMT held elections, allowed a flourishing media, and left businessmen to themselves.
Want to learn more about the rich histories of China and Taiwan? You're in luck! Here is a list of resources for the audience of the Rod Martin Report:
* Rebel Island: The Incredible History of Taiwan by Jonathan Clements
* The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between by Sulmaan Wasif Khan
* Victorious in Defeat: The Life and Times of Chiang Kai-shek, China, 1887-1975 by Alexander V. Pantsov
* The Generalissmo's Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan by Jay Taylor
* Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation by Leo T.S. Ching
* China: A History by John Keay
* Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen R. Platt
* The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 by Diana Preston
* The Chinese Civil War: 1945-49 (Essential Histories) by Michael Lynch
An excellent job by Dr. Rod Martin on the NTD Newsroom! America's largest ever arms deal with Taiwan which amounts to about $12 billion dollars is part of President Trump's brilliant strategy to contain China. Unlike Joe Biden, Donald Trump does NOT want to be reckless and start World War III and a nuclear Holocaust that would wipe out all life on Earth. So, he has not done anything to needlessly provoke China, has expressed a willingness to make peace with China and has
made sure to honor the One China Policy while
also arming Taiwan and protecting its unofficial independence and blockading Venezuela and Cuba's shadow oil trade which will hurt China's economy big time.
Taiwan is the Israel of East Asia and has been a staunch U.S. ally since 1949. They are a vibrant liberal democracy and have a booming free-market capitalist economy. They are world leaders in technology They have world-class semiconductor and ICT sectors, robust R&D investment and strong research institutes. Strategically, Taiwan is also important because it is only 100+ miles from the Chinese mainland. China has threatened to invade Taiwan but have never done it. This is for two main reasons. 1) They don’t want a nuclear war with the United States either. 2) Their economy is in a complete tailspin.
China’s birth rate is falling and finds itself in a demographic crisis that will take decades to reverse. They are suffering from a deep real estate crisis, high local government debt, weak consumer confidence and spending, and persistent deflation. On top of that, trade tensions with the U.S. have hurt exports. Returning to Taiwan, they’ve been a reliable ally to the United States since the Cold War and were a bulwark against Communism in East Asia. Chiang Kai-shek and his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo were no angels, but they were staunch friends to America during the Cold War. The former was also a loyal ally to us in fighting the Japanese in WWII when he was leader of the Republic of China. The Nationalists did much more to help fight Japanese Nationalism in WWII than the Communists did.
The Republic of China warts and all, was worlds better than China under Mao and the Communists. The esteemed Professor Bruce Gilley in a February 12, 2024 piece in The American Conservative, did a great job laying out in why the Chinese Republic was nowhere near as bad as it has been made out to be. The Republican era in China for those of you who don’t know lasted from 1912 to 1949. The Republican era witnessed major progress on all fronts, economic, social and political. During that time the foundations for a modern, industrialized economy were being laid and a flourishing capitalism emerged.
The distinctly Chinese modern state that emerged in the republic and is used by Taiwan also emerged with five branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial, civil service, and anti-corruption. Classical culture was nourished while social progress leapt forward especially women with the banning of polygamy and foot binding and the entry of women into the bureaucracy. Civil society flourished, elections were held and bureaucratic state began to provide public health, education, infrastructure, policing, prisons, divorce, and statistics. Contrary to Communist myth, peasant poverty was NOT a real problem. The population rose during this time from 410 million to 540 million and a new urban middle class emerged.
This noble experiment only ended because of the Japanese invasion and World War II. This forced the KMT into a war posture that would serve to undermine its modernization project. The KMT furthermore was conservative but it was NOT fascist. There was no powerful all-controlling state, mass indoctrination, no mass movements, little censorship, and hardly any police suppression of political opposition. There was no “New Man” being forged from the crooked timber of Chinese humanity and the youth movements they had were never anything more than a sideshow. The KMT held elections, allowed a flourishing media, and left businessmen to themselves.
Want to learn more about the rich histories of China and Taiwan? You're in luck! Here is a list of resources for the audience of the Rod Martin Report:
* Rebel Island: The Incredible History of Taiwan by Jonathan Clements
* The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between by Sulmaan Wasif Khan
* Victorious in Defeat: The Life and Times of Chiang Kai-shek, China, 1887-1975 by Alexander V. Pantsov
* The Generalissmo's Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan by Jay Taylor
* Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation by Leo T.S. Ching
* China: A History by John Keay
* Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen R. Platt
* The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 by Diana Preston
* The Chinese Civil War: 1945-49 (Essential Histories) by Michael Lynch
* Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang