China’s communist secretary-general, Xi Jinping, turned down an invitation to attend the U.S. inauguration offered by President-elect Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, between Dec. 9 and 11, the Chinese Communist Party sent the People’s Liberation Army in large numbers around Taiwan and into the Philippine Sea.
As the Jan. 20 inauguration approaches, recent trends in military operations make clear Xi has no interest in lowering tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Since 2022, China has steadily increased its military incursions around Taiwan—the most provocative when PLA warplanes cross the median line in the Taiwan Strait. In just the past nine months, there have been various waves of PLA activity near Taiwan.
Usually, these demonstrations of military might around Taiwan are publicly announced as a response to some specific action irking Beijing, but the December event was…
