Taiwan holds free elections. Its presidents are chosen by universal suffrage. Its legislature is genuinely competitive. Its media is independent, its courts function without systematic political interference, and its civil society is vibrant by any comparative measure of democratic health. These facts are not incidental to the Taiwan Strait dispute. They are the core of it. Taiwan’s democracy is an existential challenge to the political legitimacy of the People’s Republic of China’s system of governance in a way that no other aspect of the Taiwan question approaches.