The Final Assault?

Writing in The National Interest, Gordon G. Chang argues that China's new leader Xi Jinping has determined to move against Taiwan, politically if he can, militarily if he must. A recent visit to Taiwan by a PRC official did not go well.

Meanwhile, unification with the PRC is unpopular with nine out of ten island residents, who increasingly self-identify as Taiwanese rather than as Chinese. Chang's concluding sentence is ominous:

The next assault on Taiwan, in the minds of Beijing officials, will be the final one.

A "final assault" threatens as much bloodshed as a "final solution." Some of it will be U.S. blood.