Conservative Casual Friday--Taiwan's Dire Straits

In recent decades, the enormous economic growth of the Communist People's Republic of China (PRC) has sustained a massive military buildup, bringing closer the day when the PRC might make real its threats to invade or blockade the island of Taiwan and subjugate it into a greater China. Since 1949, when Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan following their defeat in the Chinese civil war, the Republic of China (ROC) on this isle 110 miles from the Chinese mainland has developed from a military dictatorship into a peaceful and prosperous democracy, one of East Asia's Tiger countries. PRC attempts to subdue what it regards as a renegade province would affect not just the human rights of the increasingly independent-minded Taiwanese people, but also a territory with enormous strategic and economic implications for the world. Retired United States Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who commanded the destroyer USS Cole during Al Qaeda's October 12, 2000, suicide bombing attack in Yemen, will join show host Andrew E. Harrod to discuss future Taiwan conflict scenarios and how the United States and allies should respond.