The Taiwan Trap

The downside for Taiwan of the porcupine strategy is the cheaper missiles only work in close ranges. For example the Javelin is good for about 2.5 KM (public info). This means mainland forces have already landed on Taiwan or are about to. I would think Taiwan doesn't want the mainland forces to ever get that close. The US may wish Taiwan would drag mainland forces into urban warfare. But nobody in their right mind wants an urban warfare in their own home town.

Awesome video. As a Taiwanese person, I hope that some day soon, the world can see Taiwan as the wonderful place that it is, instead of just an anti-China talking point. In the mean time, thank you for shining a light on us!

The vox to independent YouTuber/journalist pipeline is producing amazing work, very inspiring!

Graphics are great in these videos, well done Sam!

Taiwan has the sixth largest fleet of F-16s & has 66 more on order

I kept seeing how China will invade Taiwan and never how can Taiwan defend it's borders. So, its a nice thing to see another perspective in this issue<3

The battleship graphics are so good! Give your editors a raise

Taiwanese here. Thanks for covering this.

The Republic of China wasn't set up in 1949 after the Nationalists arrived in Taiwan. PRC was established in 1949. The Republic of China was established in 1912 with the 1911 Revolution (10/10/1911) led by Sun Yat-Sen, the first provisional president of the ROC and eternal Nationalist leader. The ROC (Taiwan) still celebrates October 10th as National Day. PRC observes October 10th as Xinhai Revolution anniversary but doesn't celebrate it as a public holiday. Just as a "historical event".

This is amazing, please make more videos like this like about Taiwan, keep this amazing work!

I've missed your work Sam - so glad you're back. You and Atlas were always the very finest content that Vox ever produced. I'll never miss an upload.

There's a lot more behind what weapons the US has sold and has not sold to Taiwan - your video paints a picture that US in the past has sold Taiwan most the advanced weaponry it requested, but that is simply not the case. In fact, US-to-Taiwan arms export track record is unique in many aspects due to the Taiwan Relations Act and this could have been explored more in this video. Few examples: M60A3 MBTs sold during the 80s and 90s were considered to be the last of its long lineage; the F-16s procured around the same time were old A/B variants; and Taiwan is most likely never going to be able to procure F-35s and will likely have to settle for the F-16Vs.

Very insightful keep up the good work search party

Really interesting stuff. Im always really stoked to see more. Have been busy lately but glad I finally got to watch this one as well :) Keep it up 👍

Loving this channel. Thanks friends.

I love your work, Sam. Keep going. All the best.

Great video, I have a nitpick which is you referred to battleships multiple times. A cursory research into modern navies would show, battleships became irrelevant in world war 2. You may be using the term in place of the more general “warships”, which nowadays is mostly destroyers and aircraft carriers. There is no such thing as a “modern battleship”.

Good job on all the videos so far 👏🏽

just wanted to add Turkey just approved Taiwan's acquisition of 100+ attack drones capable of firing multiple guided missiles

It will be interesting to see what might happen. Since Taipei prefers to cover all its bases, it may try to further develop its domestic advanced arms industry. Or if Taipei feels strongly enough, it may also try buying advanced weapons from other nations to fill the gap (like how Ukraine does). But, the latter would be incredibly controversial in Taiwan's case.