Washington most vulnerable in Taiwan bet
The US-based Rand Corporation has released a report about playing Taiwan, which is part of China, against its central government, where it concluded that "Taiwan is vulnerable to defeat (by the Chinese mainland) within 90 days."
The report evaluated Taiwan's capacities and claimed that US intervention is necessary in case the Chinese mainland "attacks" Taiwan.
There is no way to know why Rand published such a report, but clearly the military-industrial complex in the United States will benefit the most from it. By scaring the Taiwan authorities with a possibly worst-case scenario, Rand's report will promote US arms sales to the island ruled by the Democratic Progressive Party, which claims it wants to seek "independence" against the historical tendency of national reunification of China.
However, neither the DPP nor the US should be fooled by the advertisement. The DPP needs to know the US has a tradition of betraying its business partners and sacrificing their interests for its own. To quote Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Taiwan will be no exception to the US' "America First" policy, and any political force that acts as its chess piece today will be an abandoned chess piece tomorrow.
As for the US, it needs to know that continuous arms sales to Taiwan is not going to help it in the long run. Whatever weapons it sells to Taiwan won't undo the trend of national reunification of China, and its arms sales to Taiwan and hyping-up of military assistance to it will only arouse deeper splits in its own society. To risk US soldiers' lives for a must-lose bet challenging China's core interests will be a fatal mistake that will put any decision-maker in the White House on the list of worst presidents in US history.