> From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. That was cemented once Xi started being reckless, leading to

> From what I've been told the younger Taiwanese tend to see themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. That was cemented once Xi started being reckless, leading to the end of the one China two systems policy. Prior to Xi, it wasn’t as black and white. > To the extent the markets were fairly free before Xi's heavy handedness, why didn't this happen yet anyway? You just answered your own question. Under authoritarianism, the government can abruptly shutdown the party at any moment for any arbitrary reason. There’s no rule of law that comes with a democracy. Also innovation needs freedom of speech. There is a cost to society and business when you’re constantly having to self censor yourself > Anti-import policies are adopted by democratic countries too. Sure, the EU has a lot of protectionist laws, but they don’t even come close to CCP’s draconian version