Reality is usually a good basis for foreign policy. Reality for Taiwan today is that it has become an independent, democratic state, and its citizens have no desire to abandon that status to join the Chinese gulag.

Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian’s recent essay in The Australian Financial Review disputes this reality, citing among other things history and international law, but relying fundamentally on the tacit threat of military force. He is wrong on all counts. Ironically, his analysis evidences the profound weaknesses of Beijing’s case.