GarbageShoot [he/him]

But there are some logistical difficulties involved in holding an election in a country currently being invaded, especially with the invasion being broadly successful.

Russia did hold elections and is “liberal democratic” but Russia has hardly been turned into a warzone in the same way. There are probably other examples worth citing.

The bulk of Taiwanese support the status quo, including that being their official diplomatic position, so I think it would go over better than you imagine. The diehard separatists are a minority faction.

Ten Chinese air force aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence zone . . . Of those aircraft, the ministry said 10 had either crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides, or entered the southwestern part of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, or ADIZ.

For those unfamiliar with the Air Defense Identification Zone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Defense_Identification_Zone_(Taiwan)

Not only does it include a lot of water that isn’t part of the Strait, right off of China’s coast, it also includes a portion of Mainland China a few times larger than Taiwan itself.

People like to talk like China is flying jets over Taipei City, but you can fly a plane from one city in Mainland China to another, only passing over land, and be in this zone. Mind you, I don’t think Taiwan having this zone is bad – countries generally should be aware of air traffic nearby – but this is part of a long history of alarmist headlines by western media regarding what is often very uninteresting air traffic in the PRC.