Opinion
In a takeover fight, both Taiwan and China come out losers
High-income and high-tech Taiwan would gain nothing from being merged into China. And Beijing would not hold on to Taiwan’s dynamism if it did seize the island.
Adrian Blundell-WignallEconomistThe legitimacy of a government requires the consent of a country’s citizens and beneficial consequences for them, as judged by reasonable persons, and tested within a democratic framework.
Chairman Mao Zedong’s dictum that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun” fails all of that. Most recently, we have seen that gun-barrel power in Hong Kong, where even the promise of a 50-year continuation of its freedoms, could not be tolerated.
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