[Mikeb85]

Much of the reason HK and Taiwan were so fiercely independent is because they enjoyed far higher living standards than mainland Chinese. The more successful China is, the more likely Taiwan is to join them.

Keep in mind that Taiwan, like China, ideologically believe in one China. When it's more advantageous for them to join China than to be a US satellite state, they will.

[SamReidHughes]

Taiwan doesn't believe in One China. That notion is intrinsically nonsensical. It's a bunch of people, with different beliefs.

[dragonwriter]

> Taiwan doesn't believe in One China.

There is a reason that the area currently effectively governed by the Republic of China has been referred by the RoC government as the “free area of the Republic of China”, and it's not a lack of belief in the idea of one China.

That said, there is disagreement among RoC political parties on this issue, and some of the public positioning is influenced by PRC reactions, since the PRC (despite not ruling out force to reintegrate the whole area governed by the ROC in any case) seems less likely to wage war in the near term over the current dispute over who governs one China (which it seems implausible for the RoC to win) than Taiwanese independence (which is more plausible, and thus a bigger threat.)

[SamReidHughes]

Taiwan is not a sentient being, so it's incapable of holding a belief.

[Mikeb85]

They literally call themselves the Republic of China...

[lerno]

Yes, and Mainland China has been threatening with military action if they would simply call the country Taiwan.

So yes your point was...?

[SamReidHughes]

There were called that when they were a dictatorship, too.