You really don't want to live in a world where China feels emboldened to make big hostile moves on the geopolitical stage.

Well, folks, I'm sorry to say we live in that world already:

China's military is rehearsing the encirclement of Taiwan during three days of military drills.

Beijing - which views Taiwan as a breakaway province of China - called the operation a "stern warning" to the island's government.

Now, you might be asking yourself right now: "Gee, where does China get the nerve? What makes them think they can go around making threats against a nation the U.S. calls a 'key partner?'"

How do they think they can get away with this? I have no idea.

Well, maybe they're just flexing a little muscle. Dictators and autocrats like to do that. Your garden-variety communist nation will like to strut its stuff every once in a while to prove it's still got the chops. Right?

The Taiwanese Defence Ministry said 71 Chinese military planes and nine ships crossed the Taiwan Strait median line. ...

One of the ships fired a round from its deck as it sailed near Pingtan island, China's closest point to Taiwan, Reuters reported.

Welp.