This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

Taiwan, threatened by the People's Republic of China in the person of Xi Jinping for years, threatened with takeover, violence.

I welcome Gordon Chang at Gordon-Gee Chang and Stephen Yates at the Heritage Foundation

to help me with a mystery that's in front of all of you now.

Within these last hours, the reporting from Reuters is that a fleet, more than a fleet, a massive deployment of PLA Navy warships at or near the Taiwan Strait and around the Republic of Taiwan, 90 warships was the number I saw and no explanation. There was alarm from

Taipei. Steve, a very good day to you. 90 warships or more. I don't remember any provocation

like this with a fleet this size. We've had flybys, we've had buzzes, we've had

destroyers, we've had aircraft carriers go through the Taiwan straight, but 90 ships.

What do you make of it, Steve?

Why now?

Is there any sense to you?

Good evening to you.

Oh, good evening, John.

Well, I think really the burden is on Beijing to try to give at least their version of why this, why now, and to what end.

And they have not really communicated very effectively about what that message was meant to really be and to whom it was addressed.

I have a colleague at Heritage who has cataloged and

chronicled maritime encroachments by China over the last several years. And on average, in

recent years, it's been in the 30 to 40 ship range at the high end. So this one was wildly larger in terms of the patterns of the past

when they have been sending signals. One usually is to demonstrate their capability to disrupt or

enforce a blockade. The other is to just generally try to push back

for others that are doing freedom of navigation exercises. But this really is only

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