One Arrow, Two Hawks: Taiwan as China’s COVID Antidote
一箭双雕：one arrow, two hawks. This idiom, analogous to the Western “kill two birds with one stone,” appears frequently in Chinese politics, most recently in Xi Jinping’s recent financial sector purge: a move to simultaneously eliminate corruption while silencing political opposition. Xi’s China faces two massive targets gatekeeping its road to “great-power” status, which it has given itself until 2049 to attain: departure from an unsustainable zero COVID policy and reunification with Taiwan. If Xi Jinping really wants to earn the resurrected title of Party Chairman, he can prove it by felling both targets with one carefully aimed shot.
The first target has plagued the Communist Party since its inception in 1949: Mao gave his new regime a century to retake Taiwan, and that...