but Taiwan will not “resist fiercely” against China. They will fold rather quickly.
I agree. They will be sold out by their trans-national corporate billionaire class.
I don’t think the ChiComs will ever have to fight for Taiwan.
They can simply, over the years, buy it, little by little.
They “fight” a long game, and if they have to battle over Taiwan, that will mean too much to lose with shipping loses, customer loses to their massive exports, as well as the unknowns in directly confronting the combined East Asian/Australian/American militaries (their stuff gets blown up/sunk/destroyed, men killed).
Why risk all of that when you can slowly take over economically until you own everyone?