Originally Posted by
Easyheat
China has IMHO no plans of expanding its impire, but it does consider Taiwan to be a part of China. The building of small airports in the SCS is a first line defence against the American PO Fleet.
The thing is that they want a unification with Taiwan before 2049, 100 years for the CM Mao era, and China as we know it today. But not only that. They want a big celebration in 2049, not being remembered for the however the Taiwan was handled. In general it took 20 years for the Chinese to not being in bad standing after the 1989 tiananmen sq, so that means that they have 10 years from now, to handle the Taiwan issue also including a military solution. The US, Brits and French know this, hence they have upgraded their attention and patrols in the international waters at the straits of Taiwan. China will not risk a WW, but for Taiwan, a destruction will be acceptable for them. Therefore is the solution to keep patrolling, these international waters.
The Hong Kong issue will be over soon. But clock is ticking fast regarding Taiwan.
Just MHO.
With China grabbing large swathes of the South China sea which borders on many countries in that part of Asia, it's not a stretch to see something being engineered in the littoral. We are also talking Oil here, not a rare commodity at the moment but in the future, may becomes so. China playing the long game.
IG