Colorado’s Republican primaries are shaping up to be pretty interesting affairs this year, with all three GOP-held U.S. House seats in the state suddenly open and up for grabs. Well before that plays out later this spring, there are a pair of elections coming up in the next few days which are probably far more important than most people realize. One of them is in this country.

The Iowa Republican Caucuses are set for next week, with the New Hampshire Primary coming soon after. These early elections will be the critical opportunity to see if there is in fact a viable alternative to former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. Chris Christie did his part earlier this week in helping to make sure there is, by exiting the race. He held himself up as the teller of hard truths, and, well, the hard truth was that he had absolutely no chance at winning the nomination, or even of becoming the leading alternative to Trump. What his continued campaign did all but guarantee was there would not be that alternative. In the most recent CNN poll, released this week, Trump garnered 39% and Nikki Haley came in at 32%. Chris Christie took away 12%. That is pretty much the definition of “spoiler.”

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So Christie did the right thing, for his party, and for the country. Hope springs tentatively eternal for deliverance from a Trump-Biden rematch, and, subsequently, from either another Trump or Joe Biden presidency.

The other election of importance to watch is across the Pacific. Taiwan is holding their presidential elections this weekend, and it is not so much who wins the contest that makes it important as the fact they are happening within the shadow of the People’s Republic of China.

Taiwan, of course, has become a global flashpoint, a part of the world that everyone keeps peering over at while they are intently watching the more active flashpoints in Gaza and Ukraine. The People’s Republic of China has harbored aggressive tendencies toward Taiwan ever since the Chinese nationalists retreated to the island in 1947. The very fact a free, autonomous, economically successful capitalist Chinese-speaking nation right off the coast of communist China is holding free elections under their noses is a rather poignant act in itself.

The politics of Taiwan are interesting, with party differences not exactly tracking the traditional left-right breakdown common in much of the West. The major differences are not in economic policy or role of government but centered primarily on the approach to mainland China; or more accurately, on the best way to maintain the status quo. The currently leading candidate,  Lai Ching-te, belongs to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which has traditionally been committed to full independence from China. Supporters of the DPP, generally younger, see themselves as Taiwanese, rather than as free Chinese. The DPP has accordingly been rather more assertive in defending Taiwan’s autonomy, and taking a harder line in opposition to Chinese interference and aggressiveness. His main opponent is Hou Yu-ih, of the Kuomintang (KMT), the party that ruled Taiwan for several decades after establishing the government there in 1947. KMT supporters, generally older, tend to see themselves as Chinese, and the party’s traditional position, largely abandoned, was they were the legitimate government of China, and looked forward to the day when the communist regime would fall and both Chinas would unite as a free country.

Well, that’s not likely, and KMT knows it. Still, their position toward the PRC is generally more conciliatory, and KMT-led governments have been more open to expanding trade relations with the mainland, and keeping the rhetoric a little calmer.

But it would be a mistake to believe KMT is “pro-China” – it was the KMT, after all, who fought the communists in the Chinese civil war. A President Hou Yu-ih would not countenance Chinese aggression, or compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty and freedom, any more than a President Lai Ching-te would.

Nor, presumably, would the surprise third-party candidate, Ko Wen-je, who is running on a campaign of, well, being “different” from the two established parties. He seems to be garnering the attention of mostly younger voters for whom “different” is appealing. “Appealing” it may be, “advisable” is another matter entirely.

If anyone wonders why this matters to Colorado, the numbers help. Taiwan’s local representative, Director General Bill Huang, spoke to the Denver Chamber of Commerce last Monday and reiterated the economic importance of the trade relationship between Taiwan and Colorado, especially in the high-tech arena. The Office of Economic Development and International Trade was there too, and echoed the figures. And besides, can’t we take some moral satisfaction in a small, free, capitalist nation democratically tweaking the nose of the Chinese Communist Party, enough so the PRC can’t help but try and interfere, to the point of sending spy balloons and rockets over Taiwanese airspace. As Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said, “if they are so interested in playing with democratic elections, they should start doing their own democratic elections.”

Well played, Mr. Minister, well played.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.