Eyck Freymann

That's something for Taiwan and for China.

Beijing to work out by themselves.

But we don't want that to be resolved by force or by coercion.

And especially since Taiwan has become a democracy, we want it to be democratically acceptable to the people of Taiwan.

Why?

Because Taiwan's fate, for reasons of geography and a whole lot else, is just tied up to the fate of our treaty allies.

Japan, South Korea, Australia, and beyond.

And there's no way to prevent catastrophic cascading consequences in this region if Taiwan falls by force or coercion.

This is a great question.

This is how we should start.

So as you say, Taiwan is the unfinished business of the Chinese Civil War.

And especially since Taiwan has democratized, since Taiwan has become this staggering success of one of the most open and prosperous and technologically advanced societies on earth, having it across the strait is a bit uncomfortable for the Chinese Communist Party.

Because it's a living, breathing example of what another China could have looked like.

A China that is both wealthier and more technologically advanced and accepted in the international community and free.

That's understandable.

Xi Jinping is deeply invested in this issue, but so were his predecessors.

To study the history of this issue is to see that going back all the way to Mao, Chinese leaders have lusted after this prize, and they have turned it into a domestic propaganda object.

The thing to understand, though, is that from the very beginning, it has always been entwined with relations with the United States.

When the communists took over the mainland in the fall of 1949, Mao immediately gave his generals instructions to plan an invasion of Taiwan.

And they looked into what an amphibious operation would look like, and they decided it can't be done.