On March 10, three days after Perry’s dinner with Liu Huaqiu, the United States dispatched two aircraft carrier battle groups near Taiwan to put China on notice that its war games were out of line. It was the largest deployment of American firepower in Asia since the end of the Vietnam War. China had thought it could intimidate Taiwan’s voters into voting against Lee and for candidates that favored unification. It was wrong. Lee won reelection in a landslide.
