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The prospect of Xi following in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s footsteps and attempting a land grab across the straits seems more likely than it once did. And Taiwan, with new infusions of U.S. military aid, is preparing more vigorously to head off the threat. For the Taiwanese public, the Russian invasion of Ukraine “has brought some perspective, some reality” to the dangers at their own doorstep, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador in Washington, told me.
In the past three decades, Taiwan has also transformed into a prosperous, vibrant multiparty democracy wholly at odds with the political dispensation in Beijing.found that some two-thirds of Taiwan’s population sees itself as primarily Taiwanese in identity, rather than Chinese — a reality that flies in the face of Chinese propaganda about Taiwan and its inhabitants being simply an extension of a greater Chinese nation.