Xi’s next move on Taiwan

This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on [Bloomberg]( This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on web readership. [How Would China Take Over Taiwan? One of These 5 Strategies]( — Hal Brands While conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have dominated the world’s attention, this year has been relatively quiet in the Taiwan Strait. Next year may not be. Photographer: Shi Tang/Getty Images AsiaPac Taiwan is fast approaching its next presidential election, in January 2024. Once that vote is over, Beijing may try to discipline Taiwan’s new government by demonstrating how formidable Chinese power — military and otherwise — is. And as the chances of another crisis in the strait increase, so will the world’s attention to the prospect of conflict there. The last such crisis, in August 2022, convinced many observers that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was set on bringing Taiwan to heel. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns [reported]( that Xi had ordered his People’s Liberation Army to be ready for action by 2027. Provocative PLA exercises showed off many of the tools needed for an invasion or a blockade. All this set off a guessing game in Washington about [when]( the climactic fight for Taiwan might come. But just as important as “when” and “whether” is “what”: If Xi does try to compel unification of the [“renegade province,”]( what type of action might he take? Read the [whole thing (for free)](. [TikTok Is Turning the Publishing World Into Fast Fashion]( — Jessica Karl [Saudis Find a Bottomless Money Pit in Lucid]( — Chris Bryant [Bridgewater Had Believability Issues]( — Matt Levine [Zelda the Movie Shows Nintendo Has Learned Its Lesson]( — Gearoid Reidy [Indian Single Malts Could Turn the Table on Scotch]( — Bobby Ghosh [New York’s Metro-North Is an Economic Mudslide Waiting to Happen]( — Liam Denning [What Did We Learn From Sam Bankman-Fried's Downfall?]( — Bloomberg’s editorial board [The War on Hamas Spells Trouble for the War on Inflation]( — Niall Ferguson [It’s Time for a Single QR Code for All the World’s Payments]( — Andy Mukherjee More From Bloomberg Opinion Here’s what we’ve been listening to this week. - [Crash Course: China Took On the World — and Now It Faces a Reckoning]( with Timothy L. O’Brien - [Bloomberg Opinion: Worker Relocation and eSports in the Olympics]( with Adam Minter, Conor Sen, Lisa Jarvis and Allison Schrager Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](