If the US goes the way of soviet russia circa 91, chances are china will move and takeover taiwan, because the US will have bigger fishes to fry at home and all the previous "deals"/alliances are dead in the water, just like soviet "satellite states" living under the umbrella of soviet russia, right after the collapse it's the "every man for himself and good luck" moment, it's over https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_state A satellite state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country.[1] The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger object, such as smaller moons revolving around larger planets, and is used mainly to refer to Central and Eastern European countries[2] of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War or to Mongolia or Tannu Tuva between 1924 and 1990,[3] for example. As used for Central and Eastern European countries it implies that the countries in question were "satellites" under the hegemony of the Soviet Union. In some contexts it also refers to other countries in the Soviet sphere of influence during the Cold War, such as North Korea (especially in the years surrounding the Korean War of 1950–1953) and Cuba (particularly after it joined the Comecon in 1972), and to some countries in the American sphere of influence, such as South Vietnam (particularly during the Vietnam war). In Western usage, the term has seldom been applied to states other than those in the Soviet orbit. In Soviet usage, the term applied to the states in the orbit of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the phrase satellite state in English back at least as far as 1916. In times of war or political tension, satellite states sometimes serve as buffers between an enemy country and the nation exerting control over the satellites.[4]