Yeah, like the Taiwanese will just love that one.


edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/china.taiwan.bridge.reut/index.html

China floats Taiwan road link plan

Thursday, January 13, 2005 Posted: 1050 GMT (1850 HKT)

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China has floated long-term plans for what would be one of the new wonders of the world -- a highway linking it with arch foe Taiwan, an island about 200 km (125 miles) offshore.

Communications Minister Zhang Chunxian said China would invest two trillion yuan ($241.7 billion) on building 34 highways over 20 to 30 years, with one linking the mainland to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, an island Beijing considers a breakaway province.

"Under the 85,000-km (53,000-mile) highway plan, there will be a special corridor linking the mainland to Taipei," he told a news conference.

Asked how this architectural feat could be accomplished, he said: "Taipei could be linked by building a tunnel or something else."

But he hinted that a section of the "highway" could involve ships transporting people and vehicles after the island lifts a decades-old ban on shipping links.

Any bridge or tunnel would be a huge leap of imagination, technology and political will. It would also have to withstand powerful earthquakes that rattle the region and frequent typhoons.

The world's longest bridge is the Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, at 38.4 km (24 miles), according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was completed in 1969.

Japan has the world's longest undersea tunnel. The 54-km Seikan tunnel links the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido and started operating in 1988 after more than two decades of construction.

China and Taiwan have had no official contacts since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but trade and tourism have flourished in recent years.

Shit, the Taiwanese will buy off on the idea and we'll probably kick in the money and resources to help build it.  Then we'll be shocked when the Chinese try to use it to roll tanks into Taipei.

Well, it would give the PRC the ability to land troops on the ROC. They never did have the beach assault assets to invade the island. So, build a road. Makes sense to me.

It's the Invasion Superhighway!

Quoted: Well, it would give the PRC the ability to land troops on the ROC. They never did have the beach assault assets to invade the island. So, LET THE TAIWANESE build a road. Makes sense to me.

Fixed it for you.

It would be hard to defend as an invasion route but the Chinese are nothing if not creative.

Quoted: It's the Invasion Superhighway!

Perfect!  Nothing like a 125 mile long ribbon of death over or under the sea to channelize a potential threat.  If you think the highway of death leaving Basra was a killing field, just wait until the Chinese Army tries to use that choke point to invade Taiwan.

China will one country again. Once democracy takes hold on continetal China and the taiwanese people believe in it there will be reunification. The chinese people are long range planners.

There is no possibilty of this bridge being used as an invasion  route as the ROC would have it targeted 6 ways to sunday.

Quoted: Perfect!  Nothing like a 125 mile long ribbon of death over or under the sea to channelize a potential threat.  If you think the highway of death leaving Basra was a killing field, just wait until the Chinese Army tries to use that choke point to invade Taiwan.

No doubt!

Blow both ends of the bridge and take your time killing everything on it.

Quoted: Perfect!  Nothing like a 125 mile long ribbon of death over or under the sea to channelize a potential threat.  If you think the highway of death leaving Basra was a killing field, just wait until the Chinese Army tries to use that choke point to invade Taiwan.

+1.  They would never stand a chance.

Is this going to be before or after their manned moon missions?

The Chinese are so full of shit.

Quoted: Shit, the Taiwanese will buy off on the idea and we'll probably kick in the money and resources to help build it.  Then we'll be shocked when the Chinese try to use it to roll tanks into Taipei.

Exactly.

Quoted: we will pay with each blue bag that walks out of walmart to build that road for the chinese.

Thanks for teh fix. Just don't include me in "we", CampyBob.

Shit the Chinese need to build a good roads to the provincial capitals before they start trying  to build any magic roads to Tawian. Their construction techniques are tragic by US or EU standards.