Hey Alan B.
"But some are saying we need to beef up self-defense giving China may take a leaf out of Putin's book and try and annex territory she claims to have as part of some old (Ming dynasty) empire. Which by the way, includes Mongolia."

Ming Dynasty was way back.
Did you know that Taiwan's real name is the 'Republic of China', and the current ruling party is called the KMT (Kuomintang) or the 'Chinese Nationalist Party?
They were a part of the Chinese Civil war which ended in 1949 under Mao, and retreated to Taiwan.
They recently came back into power after suffering a huge defeat in last months elections (after Nansy Pelosi's visit)
I guess the Taiwanese people saw what happened in Ukraine and don't want to end up in the same fate.
You can find a bit more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War

Elections in Taiwan, ruling party suffers massive defeat
http://youtu.be/uGBw1RM0RLg

"And given we have defense treaties, with some of those, we may be drawn in as allies?"
- That's what I'm concerned might end up happening.

"Better China (the CCP) looks at the beating Russia is taking and decide the additional territory ain't worth the price they would pay, every which way!"

Don't believe everything you hear about the situation in Ukraine.
Putin hasn't even really gotten started yet, the coming months will be very bad for Ukraine, and there's a huge strike by Russia (bigger than anything so far) in preparation, coming any day.
Bakhmut may only have a week or 2 left before it falls.

I'd add a bit of info on the current situation there but I've just had visitors turn up sorry.

Simply invading a peaceful and non-threating neighbour cannot be justified or excused. It is taking a leaf out of Herr Hitler's book.

Had the free world assassinated Hitler before he started WW11, we could have saved millions of lives and billons of national treasure.

Blowing up power and water treatment plants, and deliberately targeting and killing civilians is a cowardly war crime.
Alan B.

What's in a name, Constantinople is now Turkey, and the blue mosque was once a Christian Basilica.

Should the Ottoman empire be regained by force of arms because it once existed.

Should Israel reoccupy all that once was biblical (God gave this land to me) Israel.

Should all white Australians return to their Ancestorial homelands and hand the country back to the original custodians.

Who cares what Tawain was once called, certainly not the inhabitants. And they looked at how the Chinese/CCP treated Hong Kong. And said, we don't want a bar of that C.R.A.P., thank you.

Better to be free and on your feet fighting for it than on your knees begging for it!
Alan B.

"Simply invading a peaceful and non-threating neighbour cannot be justified or excused."
They didn't just 'simply invade a peaceful and non threatening neighbour'.
Tensions have been rising for the last 14 years following the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Bucharest_summit

"Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to the summit, and he arrived on the second day (3 April) to participate in bilateral NATO–Russia talks. He opposed the US plans to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic, which was discussed at the summit. Russia also opposed Georgia and Ukraine's NATO membership bids."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine

"The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act against the United States.[1] The doctrine was central to American foreign policy for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries."

If we want a world where tensions between nuclear-armed superpowers aren't created then there needs to be some kind of security architecture that can be agree between all parties.

The United States should not be allowed to place nukes and military and missiles on Russia's borders (Georgia and Ukraine) nor should the US be permitted to do the same in Taiwan against China's interests
- In exactly the same way the the US would not allow either Russia or China to place nukes, military or missiles in Cuba.

Even Macron came out and spoke about this yesterday:

Future European security architecture must include guarantees for Russia — Macron
http://tass.com/world/1545261

"We must think about the security architecture, in which we will live tomorrow. I am talking, in particular, about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words that NATO is approaching Russia’s borders and deploys weapons that could threaten it," he said

Putin has tried for years to get the West to recognise his nations security interests but he was always ignored and dismissed
- and well, war is what happens when diplomacy fails.

Putin warns Nato over expansion (4 April 2008)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/04/nato.russia

war is what happens when diplomacy fails.
Armchair Critic,
Diplomacy is the World's oldest con !