At the moment, Beijing is extending the prospect of cooperation. In a Monday phone call, Wang offered Blinken a deal: Chinese cooperation on achieving a “soft landing” in Afghanistan in return for the adoption of pro-Beijing policies. The peace offering, however, was accompanied, Chinese-style, with threatening actions. On Tuesday, Beijing announced sea and air military exercises both southeast and southwest of Taiwan. The drills come after a long pause in these provocative maneuvers in and around that self-governing island.

For the most part, Taiwan’s people do not appear unnerved by the recent Chinese propaganda initiatives. The view, evident this week, is to focus on the overall reliability of the U.S., not the Biden administration’s failure in Afghanistan. The island’s people know that Beijing’s threatening actions are in response to the growing Washington-Taipei relationship that became clear beginning in the second half of the Trump administration and continued by Biden.

All of this means the world should expect trouble soon.