JOHN CULVER is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings. He served for 35 years as a Central Intelligence Agency officer, including as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia from 2015 to 2018.

Would a Taiwan-China Conflict Lead to World War III? The situation between Taiwan and China is a mess. Xi Jinping could order an amphibious reunification attack against Taipei at any time. China’s navy and air force are continually conducting drills – either huge flights of airplanes near Taiwan to intimidate the government or ships in