The logic of such strikes would be to make clear to China and important onlookers that China was bringing this harm on itself through its unreasonable recalcitrance, that the United States was not inflicting pain without good reason, and that China could end the infliction of such pain by recognizing the evident reality of its defeat over Taiwan—a limited equity well below the existential level. China’s leadership, in this model, would be the main driver of the harm brought on China, and they could turn off that suffering at any time by taking the limited, reasonable step of acknowledging a
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Would this bring about the end of the CCP? If so, that would be existential.
