America must defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese invasion. This is not to be done because we are warmongers out to look for young blood to spill. Nor because we long for some George W. Bush styled neoconservatism–although maybe that's not a terrible idea given the circumstances– but it's because America must continue to learn the number one rule in being a global superpower and that is to maintain global hegemony. Allow me to explain.
It should be self-evident that a Chinese occupation of the west would be bad for our liberties and would end in totalitarian rule. The evidence is clear that China strong arms businesses, maintains concentration camps, tortures politcal enemies and fosters a grudge against America and her allies. It's even clearer that China wishes to expand its reach not only to places like Hong Kong but also to Taiwan. Their foriegn policy has been dead set on a “Peaceful Reunification” of China and the island nation for some time now, and they have been determined on instilling a sense of imminent invasion into the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese people by using constant flybys of Chinese jets and practicing beach landings off the coast of Taiwan’s mainland.
Why Taiwan though? Why didn't we start sooner and why must we draw the line at the small island off the Chinese coast? The answer of why Taiwan is simple. Taiwan produces 51% of the world's microchips which are vital to the production of cellphones, cars, laptops, televisions, fridges, toasters, and just about ANYTHING involving some form of technology requires microchips in some capacity. Now imagine if in 2-3 years or so, China decides to invade Taiwan and does so successfully, they would control nearly 67% of the world's microchip production if you factor in their country’s production rate plus that of Taiwan’s. Given this scenario I have to ask the question, “Do you feel comfortable with that number?” or better yet “Do you feel comfortable with the CCP having complete access to the key resource needed for America's future survival?” you are probably going to answer no in that case.
Taiwan also stands as a bastion of liberal democracy in Asia (along with Japan and others) but it is important in this regard because if Taiwan falls it begs the question “How long until South Korea or Japan falls too?”
China is not our friend and never has been our friend. American national interests need to be protected and that also means we need to make sure that our status as the world's greatest superpower is to be preserved for future generations. Global powers tend to put on the brakes during periods of financial or social changes. The United States did not seek to become the heir to the British empire, but the responsibility was hoisted onto us by a dying and worn down power. America has not always done the greatest at practicing what we preach but when given the alternatives of Russia and China, I feel most would quickly come to the understanding that America is better suited to be sitting at the head of the table.
Many pundits and politicians would say that we need to invest in our economy to build up our production capabilities, but many of them lack the basic economic facts that this would be extremely difficult and would take many years to reach the production rate of taiwan. Instead what needs to be done is America and our allies must work to protect our interests and that starts by standing by Taiwan.
As stated before, America has not always done the greatest job at practicing the values we preach so dearly but even then that shouldn't stop us from working towards protecting those values and institutions around the world. Over the last two years we have heard about how important our democracy is to us and I agree, but many of these same people would be willing to let countries like Afghanistan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Ukraine to fall under the control of brutal, illiberal, unconstrained and anti american governments who would love nothing more than to see the end of the west and all we stand for. We abandoned Afghanistan after giving the people and our allies our word, and we watched in silence as Hong Kong fell to brutal crackdowns on free speech, and we currently stand unprepared to protect Ukraine from Putin's grasp. At some point we need to ask ourselves, “Are we going to try to uphold our values or our place in the world?” because if we don't start now, then I fear we never will.
I sure hope America will be just as gung-ho to support Taiwan as they are in support of Ukraine right now.
I actually feel like I have a lot of reasons to support Taiwan, whereas with Ukraine, best I can do is "Russia bad".