Growing Chinese Threat Makes Taiwan World’s Most Dangerous Flashpoint, Defense Analysts Warn

Bill Gertz

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The growing threat of a Chinese military attack makes Taiwan one of the most dangerous global flash points for years to come, according to a think tank report.

The report details military and nonmilitary methods Beijing is preparing to use to coerce the self-ruled island democracy into capitulating.

“Taiwan’s strategic significance and the far-ranging damage from its coercive annexation by China would be a devastating loss from which the United States could neither fully retreat nor readily recover,” the report said.

The report says Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon reach the apex of his power and thus be free to pursue his announced goal of taking over the island, located 100 miles off the southern Chinese coast.

The mounting danger requires stronger American deterrence, said the report, noting that catastrophic results could include the loss of access to Taiwan’s world-class advanced computer chip manufacturing sector.