On 25 and 28 August 2024, respectively, the New York Times asked, “What if China Invades?“ and the Wall Street Journal asked, “Can Taiwan Count on the U.S. if Trump Wins?”

These well-done articles neither (1) address the influence allies’ decisions will have on US options, nor (2) do they work the richer resource of what the United States could and should be doing now to avert a PRC invasion of Taiwan.

Regarding allies’ possible actions, if Japan, for one example, considers countering a People’s Republic of China (PRC) invasion of Taiwan imperative for its national security, Japan’s decision may constrain the United States’ range of choices.

This possibility alone makes it more important for the United States to leverage its advantages and Communist Party of China (CPC) disadvantages urgently, aggressively, and persistently.

A very short partial list of starting points to do so includes:

1. Publishing stories in several languages about Chinese people’s disinclination towards invading Taiwan, including their fears for their only sons’ deaths, and an invasion’s likelihood of further disrupting their once growing financial comfort, and their worries that an invasion essentially feeds primarily one man’s ego.
2. Reducing capital flows that support CPC war-making capabilities by raising costs for American investors to buy PRC securities, by raising requirements for PRC access to financing from multilateral institutions, and by raising transparency obligations for PRC investments in countries around the world.