The individual Chinese man, woman, and child of the more than 1 billion people in China are mere cogs in the CCP machine, easily silenced or dispensed with if they harm the party. That is why the Chinese government has been lying about the origins of the COVID-19 virus even as it infected millions, and perhaps more importantly, why they behaved at the onset of the pandemic as though they did not mind the virus spreading outside their borders. It’s why the CCP is engaged in genocide of the Uighur Muslims, and it’s why the CCP forces companies to comply with their authoritarian policies and guidelines.

In stark contrast, Taiwan is a flourishing liberal democracy of 24 million people, advocating dignity for each individual man, woman, and child. It has embraced pluralism and transparency, as well as religious, political, and academic freedom. The very existence of a free and successful Taiwan rebukes Xi’s vision and his insistence that Chinese Communism is a superior system of government to liberal democracy, and that ethnic Chinese are the ones to prove it. //

Should the PRC conquer Taiwan, China scholar Michael Mazza articulates the stakes:

The PLA would for the first time have unimpeded access to the Pacific Ocean, allowing it more easily to threaten Guam, Hawaii, and the continental United States. PLA ballistic missile submarines might ply the waters of the Western Pacific, allowing China to pose a more potent nuclear weapons threat to the United States. //

We also have an interest in trading and traveling safely in a region that will generate two-thirds of the global economy in the next ten years and want to do so as Americans, not as essentially Chinese serfs who need the CCP to grant us permission. If China can cut us off from the region, it would also seriously impede the United States from providing security assurances to allies like Japan and the Philippines.

If Japan loses confidence in America’s willingness and ability to come to their defense if China or North Korea attacks them with a nuclear weapon, we can be sure Japan will get their own nuclear weapons, which would kick off a domino effect of nuclear proliferation. The importance of the credibility of nuclear assurances made from the United States to our allies cannot be overstated. //

To state the obvious: the Chinese appear to not be intimidated by President Joe Biden. Chinese diplomats did not publicly preverbally slap around the United States’ most senior diplomats during the Trump administration the way they did of Biden officials in Alaska. //

Third, we must put a premium on better fortifying Guam to defend against an attack by the PRC. Any American fight with the PRC will rely on our ability to operate from Guam.

Fourth, the United States should quickly produce and work with allies to deploy “long-range fires,” ground-launched cruise missiles able to successfully hit targets as required on a challenging battlefield. President Trump withdrew the United States from the Cold War Treaty — the INF Treaty — because Russia was cheating on it. Now we can, and must, produce those missiles even as we work with allies on potential hosting agreements. //

Finally, we should emphasize close and very visible cooperation and solidarity with our regional allies and partners. China seeks vassal states. The United States has and respects sovereign allies that are indispensable for deterring China and winning if deterrence fails. The Trump administration did excellent work with the “Quad” and the Biden administration is continuing such efforts.

The CCP is determined to replace the United States and thinks it sees an opening now to make its move by swallowing up Taiwan. We must do everything we can now to convince the CCP that such an opening does not exist.