There is a school of thought that China has no strong desire to fully control Taiwan, because(a) it already gets most of what it wants from Taiwan (for example, smuggled chips and chip designs),(b) they are increasing this influence a little bit every year, and(c) Chinese are patient.Perhaps.But it is also true that neither the U.S. population nor its elites have any strong desire to protect Taiwan. Nor do we any longer have an easy ability to do so with 21st century warfare, where naval assets have increas ...