Wow, why is this not reported on by more prominent American newspapers? What is the point of doing this? Is this a new strategy to try any and everything we can to piss China off?

Calling VSG Donald...

The United State's longstanding military sales to Taiwan aside, there are many people in the current U.S. administration and congress who want to rip up the "don't rock the boat" playbook and push back against real or perceived moves by China to exert control over its neighbors.

Some outright want to topple the Chinese Communist Party. Quoting Steve Bannon in an NPR piece published last month:

"I think ultimate success is regime change ... the goal is quite simply to break the back of this totalitarian mercantilist economic society."

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/07/719947020/inside-the-white-ho...