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Dangerous fatalism about a Sino-US war
The logic of armed conflict over Taiwan is taking hold in Beijing and Washington
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A newspaper front-page in Beijing shows a Chinese aircraft taking part in military exercises in the waters around Taiwan, on Aug 8, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Gideon Rachman
(FINANCIAL TIMES) - When an international dispute has been rumbling on for decades, it can seem like a chronic condition that will never become terminal. The United States and China were squaring off about Taiwan in the 1950s. I wrote a cover story for The Economist on the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995.
So it is tempting to see the threatening military exercises that China conducted off the coast of Taiwan as simply the latest chapter in a long-running saga.
