Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

Guomindang and the Communist Party of China both agree that Taiwan is part of China (if not on who should rule China), and legally the case is pretty clear. Taiwan/Mainland China is quite analogous to West/East Germany (formerly), North/South Vietnam (formerly) and North/South Korea (currently).

Diplomatically (which is the pragmatic, i.e. workable, argument in international law) Taiwan's case is pretty hopeless. East and West Germany were both dipomatically viable countries and so are North and South Korea. Communist Vietnam kicked U.S. butt and got international recognition in response. Taiwan, thanks to Henry Kissinger, has no viable diplomatic relations, only economic ones. Both Chinas do One China policy from their own perspective, but mainland China has decidedly had the upper hand since Henry Kissinger.

None of these were/will be unions of equals. North Vietnam took over South Vietnam when the Americans left. West Germany simply took over East Germany to form Germany, which is the likely outcome of South Korea taking over North Korea (both South Korea and China are concerned about refugees in a collapsing North Korea), while Mainland China would be likely to repeat one country two systems if things got their way, which makes Hong Kong and Macau important showcases for Beijing.

which is the likely outcome of South Korea taking over North Korea (both South Korea and China are concerned about refugees in a collapsing North Korea),

Taiwan would likely implode as soon as U.S. (and Japan) withdraw their military presence, but nobody wants the mainland Chinese regime to spread in the region, so the containment is to remain in place.

Alibaba Group Holding, the world’s largest e-commerce platform operator, aims to become the fifth-largest “economy” in the world by 2036, founder Jack Ma Yun said on Friday.

In 19 years’ time, the technology giant would have created 100 million jobs and would support 10 million profitable businesses on its platforms as it strove to become a global business in the truest sense, serving as many as two billion consumers worldwide, the executive chairman told about 400 investors at its headquarters in Hangzhou.

[font="PT Sans", sans-serif]The Chinese firm, which runs the popular Taobao and Tmall e-commerce platforms, has set a target to achieve US$1 trillion in gross merchandise volume in 2019 – the 2020 financial year – which would make it roughly the 16th- or 17th-largest “economy” in the world, according to Ma. He said Alibaba’s gross merchandise value today already made it the 22nd-largest “economy” globally, just behind Argentina.[/font][/color]