John Mearsheimer

but it's also a top priority for us not to let them take Taiwan.

Why exactly?

Because it's an important strategic asset.

Many people will say it's because Taiwan's a democracy, but that doesn't matter that much.

It's because of two strategic reasons.

The first is that if we were to let Taiwan go,

It would have hugely negative consequences for our alliance structure in East Asia.

To contain China, we need allies.

We have an alliance structure.

And our allies, Japanese, South Koreans, Filipinos, Australians, they're all counting on us to be there for them.

And if we say we're not going to defend Taiwan, the Chinese attack, they're going to say, I bet if the Chinese attack us, the Americans won't be there for us.

So it would have...

a damaging effect on our alliance structure, which we cannot afford.

Because containing China is a wicked problem.

It's a powerful state.

You were getting to this before when you talked about China versus Taiwan.

So that's the first reason.

Second reason is you want to bottle up the Chinese Navy and the Chinese Air Force inside the first island chain.

You don't want to let them get out.

into the Pacific.