> there is very little for China to lose and a lot to gain by simply letting Taiwan go. The thing about autocracies is that they fight every day to remain in p

> there is very little for China to lose and a lot to gain by simply letting Taiwan go. The thing about autocracies is that they fight every day to remain in power - they're very hollow things, that need to clamp down on their own people. Even if people seem fine with it, things can go sideways quickly. Now imagine having a thriving democracy right next to them, where people have the perks of freedom that comes with democratic values. That's what this is all about. The same in Ukraine - imagine seeing another former Soviet country, Ukrainians thrive as a democracy aligned with the EU - which by the way is an ethnic group many Russians see as inferior (addressing them by "ethnophobic" terms, like they did with Chechens). It's a threat to the regime. These are the claims of autocracies, everyone around them must be less than them in comparison, else people will start to get agitated and might they are better off with democracies.