US should ditch Taiwan to save its economy?

[drumbrake]

NY Times op-ed: To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan

There are dozens of initiatives President Obama could undertake to strengthen our economic security. Here is one: He should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.

Several rebuttals already including:

The Atlantic James Fallows

My first reaction to today's op-ed in the NYT was that it was some kind of put-on. America owes China a lot of money; officials in Beijing are always mad at officials in Washington for selling weapons to Taiwan. Presto! Let's solve both problems at once, writing off the debt in exchange for writing off Taiwan. I kept waiting for the "but seriously now..." transition to a real proposal, or the paragraph saying, "Obviously this would be crazy, yet it underscores..." But apparently the author, Paul V. Kane, identified as a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and a former fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard, really means it.

And The Peking Duck

This is an extraordinary piece. The author believes that ditching Taiwan (“slowly and gradually”) will help turn the US around and boost Obama’s standing everywhere. It would, he said, immediately eliminate 10 percent of the US’s national debt (which could well be true.) Taiwan would be a super-bargaining chip, giving us leverage to get China to agree to stop supporting terrorist states and to write off our $1.4 trillion debt owned by China.

And this video from Taiwan:

[hullexile]

To be honest I don't think the US would really defend Taiwan (even less so the Philippines which they promised to do recently).

[gilleshk]

It's not about defending anyone, most countries are bargaining chips to be used in political games. Saves larger countries from directly being at war with each other. Taiwan won't be entirely ditched, it's way too big a chip to give away entirely.