tirsdag 12. mai 2026

After annexation: How China plans to run Taiwan

Taiwan would present challenges categorically different from those Beijing has faced in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, or other peripheral regions. Taiwan is a high-income liberal democracy with a strong political identity, dense civic institutions, an independent legal culture, a boisterous free media, and deep integration into global economic, high-tech, and informational networks. 

Governing such a society by force would impose large and enduring political, economic, and security costs on the Chinese state, and in turn would shape Beijing’s own domestic politics, its international standing, and global economic stability for decades. [7] China’s challenge is nothing less than the full transformation of the structure and identity of a society and a people that see the CCP largely as an antagonistic entity.