Even normally pro-Beijing KMT leaders in Taiwan were forced to publicly disavow “one country, two systems.” The crackdown in Hong Kong offered yet more evidence that in an increasingly authoritarian China, domestic political and policy dissent would no longer be tolerated. This left Beijing with ever-declining credibility in its efforts to bring about a negotiated political compact with rambunctiously democratic Taiwan. Indeed, the Taiwanese people are now unlikely to ever yield to any form of “political deal” between its political elites and China. That being the case, Beijing is likely to
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