This is John Batchel, a conversation with my good friend Gordon Chang about the significance of the threats to Taiwan, routine now out of Beijing, but especially out of Xi Jinping, the man who is in place to be the dictator of policy for the rest of his life. Why? Why the threats? Why the building of an invasion fleet? What does this do for the economy

which is sagging and serious deflation, perhaps decade-long deflation? Gordon answers bluntly.

Here's Gordon Chang. Much more of this tonight. Why Taiwan? Why she threatens Taiwan? Well, he has staked his personal legitimacy on

annexing Taiwan. He's talked about it all the time, and he's talked about it in ways that are

different than his predecessors. You know, you go back through all the general secretaries and leaders,

and they say, yes, Taiwan's part of China, but they really didn't mean it.

I mean, they just, this was something that was an agenda item for the far future.

Xi Jinping talks about it as if it cannot be passed down from generation to generation, which he has said.