The Taiwan stand-off between the island, China, and the U.S. has been a simmering point of tension for decades, but with anti-China rhetoric ratcheting up in the West, and bolder American overtures towards Taiwan’s elected leaders, the potential for open conflict seems more and more likely.

The United States is at a three-way crossroads. It must decide whether to defend Taiwan, abandon Taiwan or destroy Taiwan. Will the U.S. risk being dragged into a war as it continues to use Taiwan to contain China’s progress? The clock is ticking.

Washington’s repeated provocations — both military and political — have made any recovery of stable relations with China difficult. If the United States fails to comprehend the serious nature of the Taiwan question, war will likely result.

AUKUS has laid out a plan for Australia to acquire its own SSN fleet. While the buildup of subs will take several years, submarine basing access and easing of constraints on the transfer of submarine parts and technologies to allies and partners mean that the program’s impact can be felt sooner in the Indo-Pacific, including on the Taiwan Straits hotspot.

Taiwan’s DPP, the pro-independence ruling party, has been fighting to retain relationships in the fallout of losing Honduras’ recognition to Beijing. Meanwhile, opposition leaders have breached a historic cross-strait divide with a visit to mainland China, all of this happening in the run up to Taiwan’s presidential elections next year.

Consultations with island authorities on trade shows American double-dealing. The visit undermined core Chinese interests and had a negative effect. It will do harm but no good in China-U.S. relations and will only undermine U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Beijing visit.

The United States, sees strategic parallels between the situations in Ukraine and Taiwan. It thinks lessons learned from Ukraine may serve as a model for dealing with China on Taiwan. But the differences are significant. To “Ukrainize” Taiwan is to provoke war rather than foster peace.

Could the United States and China go to war over Taiwan? China regards the island 90 miles (145 kilometers) off its coast as a renegade province, and President Xi Jinping raised the issue at the recent 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Though Xi said he prefers reunification by peaceful means, his objective was clear, and he did not rule out the use of force. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the share of the population identifying as solely Taiwanese continues to exceed the share that identifies as both Chinese and Taiwanese.

Foreigners have hyped the possibility that Beijing will resort to reunification by force. This creates a dilemma: China must either accept the prospect of secession or the destructive consequences of force. Escaping this trap will require joint efforts by Chinese people on both sides of the strait.

Europe has stepped up its engagement with Taiwan to a level unthinkable only a few years ago - a dynamic which is welcomed in Washington but risks triggering commercial reprisals from Beijing. If not managed carefully, such actions threaten to reduce Europe’s diplomatic leeway and ability to contribute to a peaceful solution of Cross-Strait relations. The EU should urgently set up a high-level communication channel with Beijing to complement the transatlantic dialogue on the Indo-Pacific established last year.