Exactly who do you think is going to stop them? The citizens of Western nations may sympathize with Taiwan, but that's very different from them being willing to send their sons and daughters to fight and die for someone else's country.
If China decides to invade Taiwan, I don't see anyone realistically trying to stop them militarily. I imagine a bunch of nations will "strongly condemn" their actions, but I would be shocked if the West is even willing to impose economic sanctions in that scenario.
I don't really have a dog in this fight, other than once having a Taiwanese friend in 3rd grade.
But, I think all this gearing up for war is not good for anyone. I'm pretty sure the world, overall, would be better off to accept that Taiwan will become part of greater China and to negotiate a peaceful plan for cultural, economic and infrastructure integration.
So if it is a foregone conclusion that say, America could take Canada in a war, Canada should just accept the inevitable and pre-surrender? Most powerful country should be allowed to annex everyone weaker than them?
> It's not about what's "right" or what's "allowed". Those are squishy concepts.
This seems to be a very common issue on HN, I've noticed. People are constantly conflating how the world works with how it should work. And, when others point this out, they're immediately accused of endorsing something morally, when really they're just stating a fact about the world, human nature, or geopolitics.
> conflating how the world works with how it should work
This doesn't really seem to be what's going on, though. Obviously, China's "allowed" in some sense to do whatever others can't stop them from doing. But also obviously, Taiwan will defend themselves from Chinese aggression. Given these two seemingly obvious Realpolitik points, it's not Taiwan's defense that causes the loss of life but China's aggression.
They invaded Tibet and East Turkistan. Those people suffer from Han-Chinese oppression.
Like with Russia, if the rest of the world doesn't draw a line, these horrible regimes start looking for the next victim.