 After more than 70 years of relative peace between China and Taiwan, “there have been disturbing signals that Beijing is reconsidering its peaceful approach,” Oriana Skylar Mastro writes in a new essay. “Whereas Chinese leaders used to view a military campaign to take the island as a fantasy, now they consider it a real possibility.”
Can Washington change Beijing’s calculations? “There is no quick and easy fix,” Mastro warns. “The most effective way to deter Chinese leaders from attacking Taiwan is also the most difficult: to convince them that armed unification would cost China its rejuvenation. And the United States cannot do this alone.”
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