They see Taiwan as a breakaway rogue state selling Chinese land to a long-time rival, Japan.
This could get ugly...
Good point. I wonder how the US would feel if Russia formally annexed a few small ininhabited islands off the coast of Oregon.
Taiwan did not exist as a nation in 1895. Please try again.
In 1972, the islands were placed under Japanese authority under the Okinawa Reversion Treaty. The islands belong to Japan. China is just trying to distract its population from economic instability and the growing wealth gap. They’ll be claiming that the Philippines is part of their sovereign territory in a few years.
I would agree that this could get ugly, and likely will. Some trigger-happy pilot will shoot at something, and then in no time at all, missiles will fly.