Xi Jinping has a not-so-subtle message for the West: China intends to seize Taiwan. And it may be up to President-elect Donald Trump to stop them.
In his annual New Year’s address, the Chinese president said, “People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family” and added, “No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.” Xi’s defiant tone isn’t a coincidence, it’s a warning. And the United States and its allies would be wise to listen — and to react.
Xi is the most powerful Chinese Communist ruler since Mao Zedong. Mao, who died nearly half a century ago, presided over a China that was impoverished. This poverty was the victim of both Mao’s policies and decades of war and internal strife. By contrast, China today is, without question, the second most powerful nation in the world. The Pentagon…
