So, I have heard some really interesting things recently from Dr. Paine at the NWC.
Somewhere in this pod she mentions the rate of decline caused by sanctions on dictators.
https://www.threads.net/@zabdo/post/DFIf_l-gkIV
This is actually true. The North Korean economy was actually very comparable to the South's in the 1960s. The Soviet and Russian economies have dragged because they can't overcome the lack of trade with them. The PRC's economy will suffer a lot from taking Taiwan if we impose sanctions on them for doing that.