Tech Central Station - China, the US and the 'Four Nevers'

China probably bears watching these days. And it is rattling sabers again, I guess you could say.

The above-linked article by Bryan Preston takes a look at changing positions of China, Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S.:

A US military delegation arrived in Taiwan Saturday, just ahead of a pivotal period in the island's history. The American delegation is in Taiwan to assess technology that Taiwanese industry might provide to the US military, most likely semiconductors. The visit is part of a 25-year-old Pentagon technology upgrade program, yet is the first such trip to Taiwan. Its timing is interesting, to say the least....

For related background, read Mahan Is Alive and Well in Today's China, by James R. Holmes, published July 28, 2004, on The Ornery American: http://www.ornery.org/essays/2004-07-28-1.html.:

The maritime strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan continues to shape world politics long after his death--but not the way he would have expected. Conveyed in works such as "The Influence of Sea Power upon History" and "The Problem of Asia," the theories of Mahan, a late-19th-century proponent of U.S. expansion in Asia, could be turned against the United States by rising Asian powers such as China....

James Holmes is a senior research associate at the University of Georgia Center for International Trade and Security. He has written for scholarly, professional, and news agencies, and his first book is due out sometime this year. For more on Holmes: http://www.uga.edu/cits/about/staff/staff_jh.htm