So, what's the order here? First food, then maybe boats and the people on them, then perhaps some shipping vessel, then a plane? And then exceptional becomes normal?

Like building islands.

And taking economic control of whole countries, such as Australia. Or capturing the world's academic community & global bodies as we saw with Covid. This strategy of incrementalization has been decades in the making, dating back to Deng Xiao-ping & the implementation of the United Front Work Dept. It's worked brilliantly - they're not gonna deviate from that course - the gradual accumulation of control.

Somewhere in that continuum, some undefined, unheralded moment, the balance of power shifts. It's not impossible to reverse it, but it's very hard, & requires a will-power that is non-existent amongst government & industry actors.

In the Australia example, not only has the CCP taken effective control, but those who ceded it have become addicted to this arrangement/money to the point that they will actively fight to protect it, even when an overwhelming number of their own countrymen are strongly against it. This surrender of sovereignty (to all intents & purposes) was justified by the oxymoron of 'economic rationalism' - the same argument used to resist doing anything about resolving the problem.

Ultimately, this death by a thousand cuts is a good argument for being proactive about Taiwan - go ahead & recognize it as a country, which it is. Do something to upset this apple-cart of subsumption. What's the worst that could happen? China launches an attack? If the plan is to gradually strangle Taiwan into submission anyway, would it not be better to throw a spanner into their works? Get them involved on a battlefield they didn't want to be on. The best outcome is if you call their bluff, they may actually back down.

Unfortunately, that's all pie-in-the-sky coz of the above dependence that has already accumulated.