>>46287
I haven't read anything new, if that's what you're implying.

You're probably going to say the Party isn't the Emperor or God because it isn't treated by the population as such, but certainly it wants that much symbolic and effective authority. They will seek total symbolic and material victory in Taiwan, even if peaceful and over the course of a very long time. Taiwan permanently becoming some sort of vassal like Korea and Vietnam once were to imperial China isn't going to happen. You'll probably also say Taiwan should be exactly like any other Chinese province, but I don't care, what matters is the Party also believes that and will inevitably ensure it is after ruling it for enough time.

By the way, you need to reconsider some things if you just read a mainstream Western scholar (Tooze) and saw it as some redpills being given to a non-establishment dissident audience. It seems scholarly Western opinion on geopolitics isn't as homogeneous as you thought.