With all the news out of the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine , it’s easy to forget that Taiwan is the world’s most dangerous flashpoint. China has long laid claim to the island and acting on those claims could lead to a spiral where Washington and Beijing come to blows over the issue—and nuclear use would remain a terrifying possibility . Now, a confluence of factors have made the situation in the Taiwan Strait even less stable. The U.S. has been burned badly by Asian nationalism