Taiwan long has been one of the globe’s most dangerous tripwires. Would the U.S. really risk Los Angeles for Taipei, as one Chinese general famously asked? Washington officials hope never to have to answer that question, but the recent Taiwanese missile misfire offers a dramatic reminder of the danger of guaranteeing other nations’ security.

U.S. leaders have become complacent about Taiwan. Americans need to ask themselves what level of risk they are willing to take to defend Taiwan. The U.S. is obligated to assist the island under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, and as China grows stronger militarily, Taiwan deserves more attention than it is receiving in the U.S.

The U.S. Defense Department recently announced that the U.S. Forces Korea Command will station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in the Republic of Korea (ROK) as a defensive measure against North Korea. But Russian and Chinese representatives have expressed concern about how THAAD could affect strategic stability, alliance relations, and global influence.

Tsai Ing-wen should give up unrealistic expectations on the US-Japan “values alliance”, and reconsider Taiwan’s role in the South China Sea issue. It’s not too late for her to look at the history of the Chinese nation and link up that history with Taiwan’s future and corresponding rights to Taiping Island.

The missile-defense deployment will worsen the bifurcation in East Asia, where regional arrangements for economic growth are shaped with China at its core while regional security architecture is set up with the US-centered military alliances as its foundation. Should this contradictory situation evolve, neither regional economic growth nor security could be sustained.

As China’s commercial and security interests expand, the Chinese Navy, like its US counterpart, may also wish to conduct more passages through international sea lanes, even if they are in the territorial sea of other countries. Anti-piracy cooperation off the coast of Somalia is an example that could prove to show a path to compromise without harming either country’s security goals.

China’s diplomatic ideal is to establish an international relationship where countries treat each other on equal footing and work together for common security, mutual benefit and joint development. China does not challenge anybody else but does not fear any challenge either, and will not allow its core interests to be jeopardized. Pursuing peace, cooperation and joint development is the only right way to follow.

But having made plenty of diplomatic, political and military efforts to hype up the arbitration during the past three years, the US will not sit idle while China tries to safeguard its lawful rights. Such are their differences on the South China Sea issue that many fear they could lead to a military conflict.

The US “freedom of navigation” operations are nothing but an exercise of double standards and selective enforcement, as evidenced by the uneven treatment of Japan and China. The operations’ real purpose is to ensure American interests. The professed aim of upholding international law or UNCLOS is just a façade.

Cyberspace is a world of inter-connectivity and convergence of interests. In terms of ensuring the security, equality, freedom and development of cyberspace, China shares the same goals with all other countries and aims to prevent abuses that interfere with those goals.