Taiwan's foremost defense analyst said a successful takeover by Beijing would turn the island into "China's Hawaii," giving the Chinese military the ability to strike at the U.S. West Coast.
I don't think the give it back would ever happen though. The invasion to occupy the island would be a nightmare and kill hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops, and hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese and civilians. It'd be a disaster for everyone and fuck with the economic order pretty hard. I mean Foxconn has 1 million employees in China.
I think that Taiwan would be one of the very last places that a crumbling US would cut ties with, just as a "fuck you" to the PRC. If things continued to destabilize (I don't think it will get quite so far in our lifetimes, but who knows), Taiwan might reorient themselves toward the PRC, but there would probably need to be a catalyst.
I don't think the give it back would ever happen though. The invasion to occupy the island would be a nightmare and kill hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops, and hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese and civilians. It'd be a disaster for everyone and fuck with the economic order pretty hard. I mean Foxconn has 1 million employees in China.
I think that Taiwan would be one of the very last places that a crumbling US would cut ties with, just as a "fuck you" to the PRC. If things continued to destabilize (I don't think it will get quite so far in our lifetimes, but who knows), Taiwan might reorient themselves toward the PRC, but there would probably need to be a catalyst.