Originally Posted by
etudiant
........ snip................. so Taiwan is visibly vulnerable.
Still, Taiwan is nowhere near as susceptible to the kind of salami reincorporation tactics as was Hong Kong, so any Chinese action would have to be overtly military and thus messy.
.......... snip................
It's going to be a military action, but it need not be messy, or at least not REAL messy. The Chinese can just march into Taiwan and declare, Here we are. Now deal with it.
The Taiwanese will object of course, but they alone can't do much; therefore, limiting the size of the mess. And who else is going to step in to help them? The once-mighty British Empire? France? The United States under the leadership of Joe Xiden? I hardly think so.
I'm afraid China is now in a position to do pretty much as they like.