Soldiers operate an M10 tank destroyer during a military exercise at an army base in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan. Reuters/Pichi Chuang
Gordon G. Chang, National Interest: The World Should Take China's War Threats Seriously
The risk the world faces is the one Xi has promised: a Chinese takeover of Taiwan.
Taiwan’s national-security and counterespionage chief, in a question-and-answer period at the national legislature, this week warned that China might invade the island republic.
“Beijing is prepared to retaliate forcibly once senior U.S. officials touch down on the island,” the National Security Bureau’s Director-General Peng Sheng-chu said, referring to visits encouraged by the Taiwan Travel Act, which recently became U.S. law.
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WNU Editor: I have been watching China for almost 35 years .... and I have never seen the rhetoric from its leadership as threatening as it is now. What concerns me is that they have not only raised expectations among their own population that China will assert its territorial claims, but they have also expanded their claims to not only include Taiwan but even Japan's claim to Okinawa .... China Continues To Lay Claims To Okinawa (May 16, 2013). If China did not have the military that it has now .... I would ignore their rhetoric. But they have been developing for the past decade the means to enforce territorial claims with a military that most countries in Asia cannot match .... and this trend of Chinese military superiority is only escalating.