"Taiwan vs Philippines?" Topic

Taiwan May Send Warships, F-16s To Escalate Philippine Naval Confrontation

…may prompt Taiwan to send F-16 fighters, Kidd-class destroyers, and three or more warships

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I didn't see that coming. What do the Philippines and Thailand have in the way of Naval and Air assets?

The Phillipines will lose, unless they can get some allies, since essentially their navy isn't much more than patrol boats and ex-US Coast Guard Cutters, if the info I've read is correct.

They don't have an air force really either, but are apparently working on getting some of those TA-50 trainers mentioned in another posting, earlier today:

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I doubt the US will let them come to blows.

Fishing rights is a hot issue with island nations, but I doubt Taiwan and the Phillipines will start an incident over a dead Taiwanese fisherman. Manila will probably issue an official apology to satisfy Taipei and all will be right with the world again.

Apparently, they offered their condolences to the man's family, but not an outright apology.

That would be a hellava good pillow fight.

No chance of war.

In an imaginary fight, Taiwan can't move enough troops to the Philippines to do much, but their navy and airforce are orders of magnitude more powerful.
-Kle.

The Philippines have a mutual defence pact with the US so should Taiwan start a shooting war the US is supposed to intervene on the side of the Philippines. But the US is also very tight with Taiwan so I doubt that they will let this escalate into a shooting war. I don't think I need to start packing to be evacuated back to Belgium yet. :-)

The Philippines will find a way to apologize without losing face, because that's the worse that can happen to a proud Filipino.

Hey! That was a 65-year old fisherman who was shot and killed. As an old fart nearing that age, I protest. The Philippines should apologize to old farts as well.