The passage of the Anti-Secession Law reveals Beijing's belief that the elected officials of Taiwan should not use their positions to carry out the will of the Taiwanese people. This hints at what the world can expect from Chinese leaders in years to come.
To an increasing extent, even those of us who live outside China's historic borders are going to have to begin to let the way we think, even about democracy and legality, be defined by unelected leaders of China, who operate largely outside the law.
Except for Taiwan - which has a vibrant and contentious democracy, a prospering free-enterprise economy and a president who expresses the sentiments of the people - the governments of the world are cravenly kowtowing to the mainland so that they do not risk their chance at the Chinese market.
Even the few tiny island nations of the Caribbean and the banana republics of Central America that in the past have recognised Taipei are now turning instead to Beijing and its 'one China' dictate.
It would seem that 'one China' has won the day. The alternative for Taiwan is to be invaded. Let us not dissect the fiction of the 'one-China' idea here. Rather, let us entertain the notion and see if Taiwan can find a way to live with it, if this is what must be.
The only way I can see to do this is if we reframe the tenet in a way that is truthful to the situation between the two sides today. If the people of Taiwan are to be coerced by the world into letting the leaders in Beijing define the terms of their thinking, then let us at least not deprive the situation entirely of logic.