An interesting point. BUT and I say that in very dramatic bold I poke you in the direction of my economic reference. China is only the remarkable modern China that has quite frankly surprised us with it's growth in the last decade because it's seen the light and opened up it's economy to private investment and capitalism. Plus, throw in a healthy dose of internal suppression overlooked by investors as well to get where they are, I guess economic stability has always had the edge over people's human rights.., and you ultimately get to potentially very sticky situation I don't think our board of big brothers would like to entertain. France has more nuclear warheads than China, their capacity for intercontinental strikes (ie: at the US) are virtually null, invading Taiwan would be like trying to enslave an entire population against the economic standard of living they are now used to, and the guerrilla campaign against the glorious motherland's army would be an Iraq for China, only worse; no crap here: the genuine fight for Freedom and Democracy without any western conspiracy theories exploited by Muslims; plus with our support. And that economic boom; vanish in a puff of nulled-investment, because they would be left with a few desperate nations in Africa to trade with. That and internal discontent they are barely coping with now (it's still a fascist dictatorship). Look what happened when they got Hong Kong back from us guys. They already knew it would economically suicide to impose to much on it other than the People's army, a new governor, and elements of suppression. They let the place more or less economically be, and thus we have modern China.. I don't think even the spacktoids leading the glorious motherland would want to shake the motherland for Taiwan.. It's certainly a conflict they know they couldn't ever win, and would only ever result in China's annihilation, and their worst nightmere; a very determined resurgent military built-up US friendly Japan..