China has three roads to Taiwan: The US must block them all

China has been advancing along all three roads to unification: persuasion, coercion and military action.

China wins — and Taiwan and the West lose — if Beijing arrives in Taipei by any one of these roads.

The U.S. and its partners must block all three.

The Chinese coercion campaign reinforces this persuasion effort by creating an environment of constant fear in Taiwan.

The PRC is sending a message to the Taiwanese people that if only they had more pliant leaders, who accepted the “reality” that Taiwan is part of China, this fear and intimidation would stop.

Beijing could pursue another form of compellence — isolation.

Daniel Blumenthal: Washington must resist tendency to focus on blocking Beijing's potential invasion.

Frederick W. Kagan is director of the Critical Threats Project and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

He also advises the Russia team at the Institute for the Study of War.