China has gone from a divided provincial and agrarian society to a world superpower in less than 75 years. This rise now poses one of the greatest threats not only to our homeland but to the basic tenets of freedom everywhere.

Over the last year, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force has run over 800 sorties, sending military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The President of China, Xi Jinping, has reaffirmed the ambitions of communist China to fulfill the “historical task of the complete reunification of the motherland.” Let me be clear: The United States has an obligation to prevent the collapse of Taiwan, an ally that shares our democratic values.