the 25 chinese fighter jets bombers and other warplanes flew in menacing formations off the southern end of taiwan a show of military might on chinas national day october 1 the incursions dozens upon dozens continued into the night and the days that followed and surged to the highest numbers ever monday when 56 warplanes tested taiwans beleaguered air defencestaiwans jets scrambled to keep up while the united states warned china that its provocative military activity undermined regional peace and stability china did not cower when a taiwanese combat air traffic controller radioed one chinese aircraft the pilot dismissed the challenge with an obscenity involving the officers motheras such confrontations intensify the balance of power around taiwan is fundamentally shifting pushing a decadeslong impasse over its future into a dangerous new phaseafter holding out against unification demands from chinas communist rulers for more than 70 years taiwan is now at the heart of the deepening discord between china and the us the islands fate has the potential to reshape the regional order and even to ignite a military conflagration intentional or nottheres very little insulation left on the wiring in the relationship danny russel a former assistant secretary of state said and its not hard to imagine getting some crossed wires and that starting a firechinas military might has for the first time made a conquest of taiwan conceivable perhaps even tempting the us wants to thwart any invasion but has watched its military dominance in asia steadily erode taiwans own military preparedness has withered even as its people become increasingly resistant to unificationall three have sought to show resolve in hopes of averting war only to provoke countermoves that compound distrust and increase the risk of miscalculationat one particularly tense moment in october 2020 us intelligence reports detailed how chinese leaders had become worried that president donald trump was preparing an attack those concerns which could have been misread prompted gen mark a milley the chair of the joint chiefs of staff to call his counterpart in beijing to assure otherwisethe taiwan issue has ceased to be a sort of narrow boutique issue and its become a central theater if not the central drama in uschina strategic competition said evan medeiros who served on president barack obamas national security councilchinas ambitious leader xi jinping now presides over what is arguably the countrys most potent military in history some argue that xi who has set the stage to rule for a third term starting in 2022 could feel compelled to conquer taiwan to crown his era in powerxi said saturday in beijing that taiwan independence was a grave lurking threat to national rejuvenation china wanted peaceful unification he said but added nobody should underestimate the staunch determination firm will and powerful ability of the chinese people to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrityfew believe a war is imminent or foreordained in part because the economic and diplomatic aftershocks would be staggering for china yet even if the