Richard Bush, the prominent Taiwan expert at Brookings, also argues that the past eight years across the Strait were beneficial for the United States. These are not a few cherry-picked quotes—such analyses of cross-Strait relations from U.S. perspective are commonplace (see here, here, here, or here). Taiwan was a troublemaker rocking the boat, increasing Chinese anxiety, and potentially threatening to drag the United States into military conflict. Pundits who argue that the United States should allow China to “Finlandize” Taiwan can only do so by removing Taiwan from this context: the next target, should Beijing get Taiwan, will be the Senkakus and Okinawa, connected to Taiwan in Chinese claims. Unlike the Ma administration, neither the DPP nor the people of Taiwan have much emotional connection to the ROC’s island claims.