The problem with this 'realism' is that it is mostly a tissue of fantasy. Yet we do not have people madly boosting the Indian market, talking about the inevitable rise of India, how we must be realistic and accept India's claims. In fact, according to World Bank figures, the Chinese economy is smaller than Britain's or Italy's and its per capita GNP is lower than Papua New Guinea's. The size of the Australian economy is about 40 per cent of China's. The failure of the Chinese state is at least as likely as its success.
Corruption is the market for official discretion.
The more official discretions, the higher the likely level of corruption. Command economies are totally run by official discretion, so tend to become totally corrupt. China has a command polity coupled to a pseudo-market economy. It is unlikely to be supplanted, but the party-state could easily just collapse. It is not the regime's strength which threatens Taiwan, but its weakness.