Thinking the Unthinkable about Taiwan’s Reunification with China

Contrary to the conventional wisdom in Western and Taiwanese mainstream mass media in our time, the "unthinkable thought” may not be so unthinkable (and politically incorrect) after all: Why is it better for Taiwan to be reunited with China in the years (or decades) to come? First reason: Economic The first reason is "economic,” which is that Taiwan is becoming more and more dependent on its economic ties with China. As China is already the world's largest economy (overtaking the U. S. in 2014, as measured by GDP Purchasing Power Parity), both mainland China and Hong Kong are already the first and second largest trading partners of Taiwan. And this economic dependency will increase all the more, as China further grows (at a rate 3 times faster than the growth rate of the U. S. economy) and consolidates its status as the world's dominant superpower in the decades to come (as already predicted in my 1999 book The Future of Human Civilization, and my 2007 book Beyond the World of Titans, and the Remaking of World Order). Second reason: Military The second reason is "military,” which is that China's decades-long military buildup has already shifted the balance of power in East Asia to China's favor, at the expense of the U. S. in the region. According to the U. S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China already has the world's largest navy (in terms of the number of ships). Although the U. S. still maintains technological superiority in some areas, the gap is closing (alarmingly) fast, as China is working on "next-generation hi-tech” weapons of all varieties (including the recent testing of the nuclear-capable around-the-world hypersonic gliding vehicle, which stunned the U. S. military as a "Sputnik-like” moment). It will eventually reach a point when the U. S. will no longer have the ability and the will to sacrifice potentially enormous losses to fight China (for Taiwan) far away from home, with no major benefits in return.