General Milley reports that China's military has become more aggressive in dealing with US military forces since 5 years ago.

China states repeatedly that it intends to capture Taiwan; we know from what we saw in Hong Kong that this would mean subjection and repression.

When China posed no real threat of conquering Taiwan, it was safe to smile at China's pretensions of doing so, and avoid ostentatious support for Taiwan. But now that the threat is real, the US needs to face up to it with a calm, explicit visible commitment to Taiwan's defense. That means that China can't order the US to limit its ties with Taiwan.

The present aggressive confrontations are harassment, intended to pressure Taiwan and the US to step on the path of yielding. That, above all, they must not do. To argue that "Pelosi should not visit Taiwan now because China might respond by increasing the harassment" is the first step of abandoning Taiwan.

However, it would be a mistake to treat these harassments as if they were real attacks — for instance, to respond aggressively. The only response to these acts of harassment should be the necessary defensive precautions in case one turns into a real bombing raid.