The article was written by three of America’s most prominent "China Hands," Bonnie S. Glaser, Jessica Chen Weiss, and Thomas J. Christensen whose primary thesis is that U.S. deterrence against the PRC should be more than just "weapons in arsenals, boots on the ground, planes in the air, ships at sea, or strategies on the planning table." As these China Hands argue, America and Taiwan must provide "credible assurances" to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have any effective deterrence of the PRC’s expansionist agenda.
The authors condemn "ill-advised" statements by former and current U.S. officials who have called for the United States Government (USG) to formally recognize Taiwan. The authors go so far as to demand that USG officials avoid even giving the impression that America is moving toward restoring formal diplomatic relations or a defense alliance with the island, even in the face of the PRC’s military threats against Taiwan that have dramatically spiked in the past year.