ABSTRACT
After the return of Hong Kong (HK) and Macau to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the 1990s, Beijing sees Taiwan as the last piece of the jigsaw needed to bring about its long-cherished aspiration to reunify China. After all, Taiwan has been the site of the Republic of China (ROC) since the 1949 Nationalist (or KMT) retreat to the island following its defeat during the Chinese civil war; it is the only territory of the self-defined Chinese state that Beijing does not control. Moreover, its democratic transformation contrasts sharply with the PRC on the mainland as a one-party state. Since its inception, the PRC has vowed to “solve” the Taiwan problem by force, if necessary. However, the world would be a different place if one day the PRC invaded and occupied Taiwan to fulfil such an aspiration.
