Source: Semafor
by Andy Browne
“Just days before US special forces grabbed Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan strongman, China rehearsed a ‘decapitation’ strike against its own nemesis, Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te. The drill was part of an intensifying military pressure campaign to intimidate the Taiwanese leadership, demoralize the population, and wear down the island’s resistance to unification with the mainland. The PLA Daily claimed that Lai, aware of the drills, had ‘outwardly feigned composure, but inwardly felt extremely fearful.’ Could Lai be the next Maduro? Many US commentators and analysts see heightened risks of just that: In their telling, the Trump administration’s defiance of international law and diplomatic norms to seize Maduro has set a precedent for Beijing, or that President Donald Trump’s claims to US dominance of the Western Hemisphere — the ‘Donroe’ doctrine — implicitly offers Chinese leader Xi Jinping a freer hand in his own backyard. These concerns sound plausible — but are mostly wrong-headed.” (01/15/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/15/2026/the-flaws-in-the-venezuela-taiwan-worldview