CHINA-TAIWAN CRISIS

The year is 2006, and for the first time in history a woman has been elected as the President of the United States. In addition to the expected duties of the office for any person, she is faced with unprecedented pressures due to her gender, and there is a looming crisis ahead. In this wargame scenario, you are assigned to put yourself into the President's shoes. How will you respond to following crisis?

China has continuously made claims that Taiwan is part of China proper and has resisted attempts by Taiwan to declare independence. At the same time, China has been in possession of Hong Kong for 9 years, and has repressed the relatively nascent democratic government in place there. During that time, China has engaged in killing student protestors and installing its own puppet government within Hong Kong, thus ending China's formal policy of "one nation, two systems." The US has repeatedly threatened China with sanctions, and the new movement toward Taiwan has created further tension between the two countries. China, a traditionally sexist country, has not placed much credence in the election of a woman to the US presidency and has seen the election as an opportunity to amass troops in port cities, conduct naval exercises; practice invasion maneuvers in their own country, and renew testing of missiles by shooting over Taiwanese territory.

As you see it, you have four broad choices. First, you can implement trade sanctions as a form of both deterrence and retaliation, although without the danger of sending American soldiers in harms way. Second, you can try to resolve the crisis diplomatically by through your State Department and other channels in an attempt to avoid violence and escalation of the conflict. Third, you can attempt to form an international coalition to harness unified, global opposition and potential retaliation against Chinese aggression. Finally, you may decide that force is the most direct and effective way to thwart a malevolent and burgeoning Chinese superpower.

For background information on the conflict between China and Taiwan click here.

Menu
Trade Sanctions
Diplomatic Pursuit
Form a Coalition
Military Action

Created by Mark DeMier, Corbett Dabbs, Steve Fox, and Eric Pratt.
The American University
December 1996