China's decision to bring serious firepower to bear for military drills in the waters off Taiwan this week has deep roots — both in the past several weeks and the past several decades.

China’s military released video of its forces carrying out live-fire drills around Taiwan to test “coordination and precision strike capabilities.”

In a statement, Taiwan’s presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said the drills “blatantly undermines the security and stability status quo of the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region” and “openly c...