After “the War that Never Was”—The Real Beginning

Beginning where Admiral A. James Winnefeld and Mr. Michael J. Morell’s “The War that Never Was: Part 1” finished, the following story offers what the end of the beginning could look like, considering their dire and unlikely ending. Using their article as a prelude, the following starts from a point where the decades-old careful balance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)–United States–Taiwan relationship has ended—no more Three Communiques, no more possibility of China’s peaceful rise, no more Taiwan as part of the “One China.” Assuming such a prelude, there is no need for ambiguity and there are many paths to victory, with leadership, energy, and imagination.