They've wanted to for decades, and now is their best opportunity to invade and take Taiwan. They see the US as weak in general and now on it's knees. Xi is in trouble internally and needs a war to hold power; he has little to lose and much to gain. He'll use the pandemic as a springboard, blaming the US for starting it.
I wouldn't bet on it. About 10 years ago I had it on some authority that Taiwan had three nuclear weapons. That did not surprise me. After all, the South African government had built nukes when they still had Apartheid, we later learned. And both India and Pakistan had developed them in secret until each one detonated six tests.
China could easily conquer Taiwan. All it would cost them would be Beijing, Canton, and Shanghai. Worth the price?
South Africa came by those nukes via Israel during the apartheid years.
My friend was high up in the SADF special forces. Former recce in angola. In 1993 he was called back up and sent on a top secret mission for a few weeks. He later admitted he had escorted 6 or 7 special packages to Israel that they wanted to get rid of before the elections.
I was briefly questioned about it by 2 ex? CIA agents who were supposedly working as security advisers and wanted to ride with me in Soweto to see if it was still safe for missionaries. I just told them I knew him but didn't know anything about what he did. I didn't mention about how I worked out with him every day and had dinner with him and his wife sometimes 3 nights a week for 3 months.
I remember the week he just disappeared. His story was that he was just headed into the bush to hunt by himself for a few weeks. Didn't have anything with him when he left but claimed he'd just be living off the land like he did in angola. He was extremely tough real deal arnold looking guy. He later admitted it was a special mission with the mossad.
Tried to go see him last time I was in africa but he had been in a motorcycle wreck and was a quad in a care center now. Sad, he was an amazing guy and had done amazing things.
When I lived in Israel in 97 I met a high level military guy in the IDF who had claimed he trained with Hennie and helped SADF develop some of their security programs. Then told me that's all he would say and warned me not to ask IDF members about SADF members while in Israel.
Bb
