WASHINGTON DC – The war began on schedule at 7pm on Wednesday (19 April). Incensed by intelligence reports suggesting that Taiwan’s president was preparing to declare independence, China’s leader Xi Jinping had ordered his military to seize the self-ruling democracy by force.
Or at least this was the scenario presented to the members of the US house select committee on China this week in a tabletop wargame they took part in, during a private hearing on Capitol Hill. The exercise, designed by experts at the Washington-based think tank Center for a New American Security, was set in 2027 and designed to simulate the first week of a Chinese assault on Taiwan. The committee members were tasked with acting as national security advisers to the US president during the conflict, and assessing how the US should respond. The results were sobering.
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