So, they’ll have to convince Taiwan to join willingly. Which basically seems like fair game, I mean countries should be allowed to form unions and join together if they want. It also seems extremely unlikely to happen given their history.

I’m under the impression that the main threat to Taiwan from China is more that China might do something basically irrational; the existence of Taiwan is sort of unfinished business from their point of view, and stoking the flames there is an easy way for politicians in China to appeal to nationalism.

Anyway, as wildly dangerous as it all seems, everybody thankfully seems quietly devoted to not actually escalating it too far, thankfully.