Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery

But if the security arrangement falls apart, because we're no longer reliable, credible ally, because we allow Taiwan to fall.

So that's how Japan looks at it.

Taiwan is the kind of canary in the coal mine.

If it goes down, we're going to have to come to grips with a regional hegemonic Chinese power.

That's the $64,000 question.

And I'll tell you, the president just put a national security strategy out and it kind of had a good news, bad news kind of situation for Taiwan.

The good news was it very clearly stated in print, something we don't normally do,

that we will not allow China to coerce Taiwan into a different solution, into some kind of integration.

And that the United States will maintain sufficient military power to make sure that doesn't happen.

That's the good news.

That's the good times.

The worst of times part of the national security strategy was the kind of removal of China being listed as a security adversary.

I think the treasury secretary had a lot to do with that.

And you can even see it as you read the document.

There's clearly like, what were they talking about here?

I think they're talking about China, but the word China has been removed.

And then in an area I look at a lot, cybersecurity,

China has been running this massive cybersecurity effort, I guess it's called Volt Typhoon, you know, preparing the battlefield in our country, in our global infrastructure, and we don't even mention it in a 33-page document about threats to the United States.

So, I say Taiwan is nervous.

You know, I have a son over there on a U.S.