Unless further economic engagement is balanced by clear political convictions, then the PRC will inevitably  exploit these asymmetries in its propaganda and United Front campaigns to reshape the international order to make it safe for CCP totalitarian rule. 

For too long, world powers have exercised undue deference to Beijing's "One-China Principle" and other political sensitivities based on the misleading assumption that further economic engagement will lead to political liberalization, which have led to the current predicament. 

It is high-time for countries to have their own meaningful interactions with Taiwan. Not only because it is in our collective national security interests given the PRC's global ambitions, for which Taiwan is simply one part of larger design, but also a recognition of the objective reality across the Taiwan Strait.