To see the Chinese state as solid, and the Chinese market as a huge commercial opportunity, are both fantasies of Western imagination and greed wrapped in a lack of understanding and genuine insight. But the path of being 'realistic' about forcible Taiwanese incorporation into China is a far more deluded fantasy than that. It is completely unrealistic about American attitudes and perspectives. The American Left despises the Beijing regime because of Tibet and Tiannimen. Realism' about Taiwan is also completely unrealistic about popular reactions.
Aggression is aggression, oppression is oppression.
Realism' would seem pathetic and horrible, as it eventually did in Timor. It is also completely unrealistic about how Australia would look if we preached acquiescence. The argument that being 'part of Asia' means accepting Chinese claims is as pathetic as the claim that one couldn't resist Nazi Germany if one wanted to a 'good European'. On the contrary, being a good regional neighbour means saying Asians are worth defending too. Preaching acquiescence would say that we think Asian freedom and democracy is strictly second-rate.