> conflating how the world works with how it should work This doesn't really seem to be what's going on, though. Obviously, China's "allowed" in some sense to

> conflating how the world works with how it should work This doesn't really seem to be what's going on, though. Obviously, China's "allowed" in some sense to do whatever others can't stop them from doing. But also obviously, Taiwan will defend themselves from Chinese aggression. Given these two seemingly obvious Realpolitik points, it's not Taiwan's defense that causes the loss of life but China's aggression.