LOS ANGELES -- Anyone who knows anything about China knows that it's not just its current government but its people, too, who are ultraprotective and ultra-sensitive about the Taiwan issue.
They'd fight -- you can bet on it -- to keep alive the hope of union with that feisty offshore island that maintains its wary distance from the mainland.
So, when a sensational story broke recently that the United States had plans for a massive show of naval power in the Chinese seas, it was a true blockbuster, perhaps a portent of world war.