Taiwan is not on the brink of a 2027 invasion; the real danger is unfolding quietly in the gray zone. In this NYU Riskathon-exclusive webinar, Dr. Minxin Pei dismantles the widely accepted countdown narrative and argues that Beijing’s most destabilizing tools are already in motion, from coercive military drills to pressure on undersea cables and commercial air routes. The flashpoint ahead is not the date everyone cites, but the political convergence of 2028, when elections in Taipei, Washington, and across the region collide with a Chinese leadership refining hybrid warfare options that stop short of war yet carry strategic shockwaves. Far from a distant scenario, Pei frames this as an imminent shift in the Taiwan Strait, concealed within procedural escalations that markets and policymakers are still treating as routine