Short Stories, Long Odds

I talk quite a bit about the Middle East on this here website, and every once in a while I mention the EU or China. In case you haven’t been following it, China and Taiwan are mad at each other. Taiwan is an island about a hundred miles off the coast of China, and to spare you the boring details, it used to be a part of China and now it thinks it isn’t anymore, even though China does.

That has made China mad over the last few years, as has our pledge to defend Taiwan’s right to freedom, democracy, and independence. We have been angered at the rest of the world’s insistence of taking China’s money in return for weaponry.

Well, I knew this was a foregone conclusion, and so did a lot of people, but in case you missed it, China passed legislation today authorizing the use of force to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence.