Article content“Taiwan is a frontline state in the PRC’s outward push to expand its physical and political influence in the Indo-Pacific, just as Ukraine stands in the way of similar ambitions in Putin’s Moscow,” Cole writes. “The fate of the island nation’s 23.5 million people will have direct repercussions for the future of democracy, the global economy, the future of technology and the ambitions of authoritarian regimes to create a world that is more hospitable to their anti-democratic outlook.”