They could easily turn around and censor any mention of taiwan until everyone forgets about it
And it's not China vs Taiwan straight up. It's China vs Taiwan, US, Japan, Australia, parts of nato.
China imports vast quantities of goods, so yes, debt matters.
> China imports vast quantities of goods, so yes, debt matters.
Yes, external debt matters. However, they don't have much external debt.
And China's imports are decreasing faster than their exports are. And that trend will accelerate because the two biggest are electronics which we are sanctioning and oil which they are rapidly weaning themselves off of.
Unless you think the China's plan is to fill the Taiwan straits with so many dead bodies/boats so quickly, that it will create a corpse bridge for tanks to roll on.
The point is that delaying the war would have made things even worse than they presently are. 2022 wasn't a good time for a war, but it was a better time than any subsequent year.
Finally there is a level of people you integrate who know how flimsy dictatorships are that a dictatorship cant survive.
That depends on the timeframe outlook. My impression has been they keep the rhetoric up so as not to abandon their claim over Taiwan, but are willing to wait a few lifetimes to get it.
AFAICT, the Chinese administration believes it must reunify Taiwan; they've backed themselves into a corner with their rhetoric. They haven't because they believe it's better to wait because the chances of it happening militarily or peacefully are greater in the future than they are now.
But if it's going to be harder in the future, they must invade now.
Luckily I don't believe your argument holds.
Taiwan's birth rate is roughly similar to China's, so it doesn't really affect their relative positions.
China's debt is 85% sovereign so it's not a forcing factor either.