Launch a first (and second) strike before they do.
Over Taiwan? History would never forgive us.
I'm sorry, but I think that is absolutley crazy. And I'm guessing that the vast majority of Americans thinks thats crazy. The Taiwan situation is incomparable to the madness we faced in western Europe.
You'd find it difficult, I think, to justify the deaths of millions of Chinese, radioactive fallout over all our allies in the region, a seriously freaked out Russia, the destruction of a few major US cities, all our orbiting sattelites, and a few US carrier fleets, not to mention massive riots and martial law here and throughout the world all becuase China was exercising political control over an island everyone, including the US, recognizes as theirs.