China's Quest to Take Taiwan

Chinese officials have started directing citizens to stock up on food amid rising vegetable, egg, and pork prices. Encouraging people to become preppers could just be how the Chinese government expresses concern about cold snaps and potential future COVID-19 lockdowns. But some fear it’s a more sinister sign, indicating that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants people to prepare for the growing threat of war.

- By Liz Wolfe

For years, tensions between China and Taiwan remained at a simmer. But in October, China sent a record number of warplanes, 149, into the Taiwanese air defense identification zone while conducting military exercises in a province directly across the water from Taiwan.

“The current situation is the most challenging since I joined the army four decades ago,” wrote Taiwan’s defense minister, Chiu Kuo-Cheng, in The Wall Street Journal, gravely noting that “Taiwan is no match for China in resources, manpower and military technologies.” The island, which is less than 0.5 percent the mainland’s size, is dwarfed by China in both area and population.