1262: Xi fancies his name will thunder down history if he invades Taiwan. Steve Yates: 葉望輝, @YatesDCIA, @dciadvisory

Published: March 4, 2021, 3:48 a.m.

Image:  Students of the Taihoku First Girls' High School near the Nishiyama Shrine in Taiwan   Steve Yates: 葉望輝, @YatesDCIA, @dciadvisory, former deputy national security advisor to Vice President Cheney and currently CEO of DC International Advisory;  and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast; in re: Xi is a hard-line leader. We have the Olympics in 2022. McMaster’s statement doesn’t seem useful. Xi has famously done away with term limits on Chinese leaders. Xi has been amping up the intl pressure for a long time. It’d be a mistake for the US to lighten up on the pressure.   Xi thinks he’d be seen as more important than Mao if he took Taiwan.  McMAster does not favor strategic clarity—“We will defend Taiwan”  —whereas strategic ambiguity is an academic’s creation that much favors Beijing. We should be clear that Taiwan in s not the provocateur. McMaster: A race to harden Taiwan’s defenses to make it indigestible.   The democratic country of Taiwan has done nothing to merit the aggression of Beijing. McMaster linked Korea and Taiwan—why? Cute and clever talking to bloody-minded Communist leaders.   If they don’t think there's real power aligned against them, they’ll look for ways to [aggress] and advance.  https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Taiwan-in-danger-from-2022-on-expert-warns-US-Congress