The D Brief: Russia hacks Taiwan; Diego Garcia shocker; ‘Sunken nuclear sub’ likely wasn’t; Small cruise missile set for test; And a bit more.

New: Russian hackers have turned their sights on Taiwan, Dmitri Alperovitch noted Thursday on social media. Targets include Taiwanese companies and government agencies.?

Why now? Possibly because just last month, Taiwan’s new president said that if Chinese Communist Party leaders’ dream of annexing Taiwan is (as they allege) about restoring territorial borders from a bygone era, then China should take back land ceded to Russia back in the 19th century “in the Treaty of Aigun during the Qing Dynasty.”?

“This clearly shows that the intention to invade Taiwan is not about territorial concerns,” Taipei’s President Lai Ching-te said.??

Rhetoric alert: Chinese leader Xi Jinping echoed the arguments of one of the deadliest dictators in history on Monday when he asserted at a state banquet in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, “Taiwan is China’s sacred territory. Blood is thicker than water, and people on both sides of the strait are connected by blood,” according to CNN, citing state-run Xinhua news.?

Former U.S. Navy submariner Tom Shugart pointed out the chilling similarities with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who wrote in Mein Kampf that the reunification of Germany and Austria “is a life task to be carried out by all means! German-Austria must be restored to the great German Motherland… People of the same blood should be in the same REICH.”

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