Determined to subjugate Taiwan under Chinese Communist Party rule, China is building warships and weapons at a vast pace and scale. Our military — and economy — simply is not ready.

If Taiwan falls, the American alliance structure in the Pacific will suffer a potentially deadly blow. China will be able to compel the political obedience of Japan and the Philippines by holding their trade flows at risk. Both those countries are U.S. treaty defense allies. Taiwan’s fall will mean the destruction of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chip manufacturer, TSMC, or, even worse, China’s assumed control over that manufacturing behemoth and the critical international export industry it provides.