Last week, Chui-Cheng Chiu, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, told a small group of reporters in Taipei that he and other Taiwanese officials and citizens are facing “extreme suppression from China, and there’s a possibility that China will annex Taiwan. 
Mr. Chiu said the stakes are particularly high ahead of the much-anticipated 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress in mid-October. He said the gathering will solidify Mr. Xi’s consolidation of power and likely lead to more aggressive policies and rhetoric from China.

The recent spike in military drills, coupled with China’s ambivalence over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has increased concern in Taipei that Chinese Communist Party leaders are preparing for war, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said.

Putting it very simply, they talk about it and they practice for it and therefore the threat for Taiwan is real, and we sense it and we understand the urgency. Therefore, we also try to prepare for the worst possible day to come, Mr. Wu said. It’s going to be very hard to guess when that will happen, whether it’s 2023 or 2025, 2027 or 2035, the Taiwanese foreign minister said.