I appreciate the fact that you have given me a heads up on this already today privately that we are going to make progress on the demonstration of the U.S. strategy vis-a-vis China, and again, its intent is to not confront but to help…

I, for one, was surprised to see their treatment of Australia, for instance, and wondered how that could possibly be in their interest to offend a nation in their region as they did, obviously, a nation with which we have a close…

My assessment is that there have been nations that have severed relations with Taiwan but have not gone the other way.

They have done a number of things which have weakened, from my perspective, their ties with those nations.

China goes to great lengths to try and convince other countries to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

It is important to have a strategy that goes beyond words.

But what are the other dimensions do you think of that key strategy?

I am actually thinking about some of the more direct economic impact, for instance, anticipating that China relies on Taiwan, for instance, for semiconductor needs of various kinds.

I think it sends a signal to would be aggressors around the world of all kinds that we will stand by our commitments and that we honor and respect the rights of democratic people to retain their freedoms and their vision for their own…

Some weeks ago I asked Taiwan's representative to the United States, what was the single most important thing we could do to convince China that it would be unwise to consider a military action of invasion against Taiwan, and the…

I am confident in our standing in these regions and what we offer.

It would seem that they are succeeding in that effort, and we are probably not being quite as effective.