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Worries are growing that China is going to take advantage of U.S. election chaos and seize islands belonging to Taiwan, raising the spectre of a military clash with the U.S. Navy that could quickly escalate into a larger military conflict—one that war-gamers say Washington cannot win.

Analysts consulted by SpyTalk point to Beijing’s growing impatience with Taiwan’s support for Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Washington’s decision to bolster the island’s defenses with advanced weaponry, and the Trump administration’s recent dispatch of high level delegations to Taiwan, a move that tears at the fabric of a nearly 50-year-old agreement between Washington and Beijing to downgrade U.S. diplomatic relations with the anticommunist republic. 

Chas Freeman, a preeminent expert on China, says Beijing may well attempt to seize the lightly defended Dongsha islands, (also known as Pratas atoll), 276 nautical miles southwest of Taiwan, or the Pescadores islands in the Taiwan Straits, or the even more…