🗣️For those wondering why the Chinese government would enlist spies to keep tabs on Taiwanese overseas, a big reason is Taiwan's functioning democracy is a threat to China's authoritarian system. It's easy to get useful idiots in the DC think tank world to keep drawing comparisons between China and "the west" as reasons for why democracy is incompatible with Chinese culture. Much harder to do when you look at Taiwan (majority ethnic Chinese and Mandarin speaking) as an example of what's possible when dictatorships die with the dictator and allow for a transition to a free society. While China was sending tanks into Tiananmen Square, Taiwan was starting its journey toward a free society. Nearly four decades later, Taiwan is the awkward counterexample in any room where people try to tell you Chinese culture is incompatible with democracy. Too much to unpack over my morning coffee, but as someone who used to drink the international relations kool-aid in the 90s and 00s and feels some responsibility for perpetuating this narrative, a good way to unlearn is to understand what's going on in Taiwan's domestic politics today. All the CCP tactics of influence and disinformation that America is waking up to have been directed at Taiwan for many years now. You only need to look at the new generation of unapologetically Taiwanese leaders and the threat their free pro-democracy minds and fluent English present to the Chinese government. Puma Shen is one to watch. The video is from November 2025, testifying at a German Bundestag hearing on disinformation by autocratic states, days after Beijing listed him as wanted and state media called for an Interpol notice. He's now running for mayor of Taipei and closing in on the incumbent. Which freaks out China because the mayor of Taipei role is often seen as a stepping stone to the Taiwan presidency.