A radio message from Taiwan,

warned approaching Chinese warplanes to turn around.

Juvented our air defense identification zone, an Air Force official said, leave immediately.

Such incursions are an increasingly familiar routine.

But the size of the Chinese show of strength in late January 2021 was unusually large.

Beijing said the drills were designed to send a warning to anyone seeking independence for Taiwan,

which is regarded by China as a breakaway province, though the island's democratically elected government

has a close security relationship with the United States.

That is potentially a very dangerous flashpoint.

And it's a more dangerous flashpoint today than it was two or three years ago.

The aerial action around Taiwan also coincided with the deployment of a powerful US aircraft carrier

group into the South China Sea.

The use of military power, such as the deployment of warplanes or ships, close to, or even

inside, the airspace or territorial waters of an opponent, is one of the most openly aggressive

tools states can use against each other in the grey zone.

It raises the risk of a miscalculation or accident that could ignite a real war.

The status of Taiwan is one of an array of frictions between China's ruling Communist Party and the United States.

Think the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong,

China's Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province,

or suspicion around the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.

It's creating a global battle of values, democracy against authoritarianism,

and it's being fought with an array of covert weapons,

...