China's Military Threat over Taiwan

It may look innocent enough on the surface, but it isn't.  Chairman Xi is telling the Army to get prepared to wage war.  It is easy enough to see that this threat is made over the inability to get Taiwan to agree to the Hong Kong approach to coming under Chinese rule.  It didn't work well for Hong Kong, and it would work equally well for Taiwan, and they are smart enough to know it.  This is the next step - to imply war can be the alternative to a "peaceful" takeover. 

I have to say this is a little blunt force even for China.  It is the kind of thing that Russia does now and again, but that China does not do very often.  They must be getting frustrated at their inability to gain this territory.  They are pressing a little too much as a result.  It reduces the chance that Taiwan will even think about such a move, and it prepares China's enemies for the worst possible scenario. 

This same thing happened years ago when I was in Ballistic Missile Defense.  One of China's generals was replying to a question about a takeover of Taiwan and the resulting conflict that might result.  The context was the US selling more aircraft to Taiwan, which we did.  He said something like "We could denote a nuclear weapon in the skies over Los Angeles and even things up".  It was the same kind of over-the-top reaction to a difficult political and military stance.  At the time, nobody took him seriously, and the government quickly explained how hard it was to control their generals (which I found absurd).  It was an image the Chinese were trying to put into peoples' minds.  That is all Xi is trying to do here.  He wants to plant an image of war if he doesn't get his way. 

This is not some general gone off the reservation this time.  Xi is the Chairman of the Party and the President of the country, the President for Life.  This kind of rhetoric at that level is not something we should expect, or allow to go unchallenged.  So, while we have all those delegations over in China discussing better trade relations, maybe somebody should asked him if he really meant what he said.  There is not much sense in patching up trade relations if he intends to take Taiwan with military force.  Cutting off all trade now is a better option.