What Would Life In Taiwan Look Like Under Chinese Rule?

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB): Outside China, analysis of Taiwan remains overwhelmingly focused on mechanics of a potential maritime blockade or military takeover, for understandable reasons. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would rank among the most economically and militarily disruptive events of 21st century.

Yet emphasis on how Beijing might use force to seize Taiwan has come at expense of an equally significant question of how it would attempt to rule the island afterwards.

After invasion: China considers problem of ruling Taiwan. In 2024, Chinese think tank paper urged Beijing to immediately establish a shadow Taiwan government on Chinese mainland in preparation for full takeover of the island.

Unusually for a Chinese publication on such a sensitive topic, paper made several frank admissions: that opposition to unification within Taiwan had deepened rather than softened; that Hong Kong’s post-1997 governance model was ill-suited to Taiwan; and that many Chinese officials lacked even basic understanding of political and social conditions on the island.

The paper circulated briefly before disappearing from China’s internet, which underscored sensitivity of topic and rarity of such candor. Read more@WAR ON THE ROCKS.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s the latest defense news from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

THE PDB – Not the President’s Daily Briefing, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF:    

AMERICA@250

America’s 250th birthday celebration increasingly centers on Trump. Trump has said he will hold a “Rally to end all Rallies,” describing himself as “the number one attraction anywhere in the world.”

NATIONAL SECURITY

New report poses model for standalone military Cyber Force. Two Washington, D.C., think tanks say it would initially cost upwards of $11 billion dollars through reallocations of existing funds, focus on offensive and defense cyber ops, and employ 30,000 uniformed and civilian personnel, with no enlisted troops.

Trump administration is scrapping a $368m ocean monitoring network as record sea temperatures, a looming “super” El Niño and threats to ocean currents intensify. Is the network useful for naval and military ops and planning?

How SpaceX became embedded in America’s war machine. Pledges to quickly deploy technology and ties cultivated with Pentagon have helped land new contracts totaling billions of dollars.

Can Pentagon’s new innovation system deliver? Five months after Secretary Hegseth’s sweeping innovation overhaul, Pentagon’s new acquisition architecture is beginning to take shape—but key questions remain.

HOMELAND DEFENSE

Adversaries do not need to breach the Pentagon’s systems: They only need to harvest the logic of publicly released frontier AI models that underpin them. This, as Department of War pivots to “AI-first” warfighting machine.

DEFENSE POLITICS

House Armed Services Committee defense policy bill would authorize largest defense budget in history — $1.15 trillion — and gives military service members a 5% to 7% pay raise.

Bringing back woke. House panel votes to reinstate non-Confederate base names recommended in 2023 by congressional commission, and adopt ‘Department of War’ branding.

House lawmakers advanced a measure to slash gas prices at military exchanges to make fuel cheaper for service members.

AI companies have responsibility to safeguard models against exploitation, senior Pentagon officer says.

Following high profile cases of sexual assault involving Army doctors, House lawmakers have proposed chaperones be required at military hospitals and clinics for sensitive medical exams.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his first official trip to Venezuela this week, five months after high-risk U.S. military operation that removed the country’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.

U.S. forces board sanctioned tanker in Indian Ocean.

IRAN WAR

U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites after shooting down drones launched by Iran toward Strait of Hormuz, in latest escalation between the two countries.

Pentagon must divulge cost of Iran war under House proposal, including costs of damaged property, expended munitions and unplanned deployments and mobilizations, under proposal advanced by House Armed Services Committee.

New normal. Fourteen weeks after President Trump ordered an attack on Iran, U.S. military is adjusting to unusual state of conflict that is not full-scale war, but also far from peace.

ISRAEL WAR LEBANON

As Tehran seeks halt to Israeli military operations inside Lebanon as part of its peace negotiations with Washington, it fired missiles toward Israel, after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Beirut hours earlier targeting Tehran-backed Hezbollah terrorists.

What visual evidence tells us about Israel’s use of white phosphorus incendiary smoke munitions in Lebanon.

RUSSIA THREAT/UKRAINE WAR

Mass Ukrainian drone strikes target Russian military facilities in St. Petersburg. The attacks came hours after speech by Putin in the city rejecting Ukraine’s calls for peace.

Ukraine is not losing. Russia is not winning. Set of technological advances have changed war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever.

EUROPEAN DEFENSE

France to test its own AI-powered battlefield command with allies in June NATO exercise. This, as alternative to Maven Smart System developed by Palantir Technologies.

Huge WWII-era underground cisterns draw Western special forces to Italy for tunnel training amid battles in tunnels in Gaza and fierce underground fighting in Ukraine.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

UK running out of time to boost its defenses in response to threat posed by Russian actions, the country’s military chief said, after months of delays to country’s Defense Investment Plan.

Canada preparing to acquire 12 modern attack submarines, with rival designs from South Korea and Germany competing for lucrative contract.

US MILITARY

Air Force has embraced new technical approaches like open mission systems and rapid software updates for next-gen aircraft like B-21 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. But is is also working to apply these to older, “legacy” aircraft.

Air Force, Space Force asking to hire more than 6,000 civilians in fiscal 2027, sharp reversal from year ago when DOGE budget request slashed about 5,700 full-time jobs.

Ending woke. Army soldiers seeking to sport beards, long hair or religious headgear must swear their “sincerely held belief” under oath, be interviewed by a chaplain and secure recommendations throughout their chain of command to receive religious accommodation.

Ending woke. Pentagon cuts 180 religious “faiths” from recognized religion list — from 211 to 31. Most troops fall under just 6 traditional faiths. No more Wicca and Satanists.

Army to order thousands of next-generation, short-range air defense missiles to replace aging FIM-92 Stinger.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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