Maybe. But you do realize that there’s literally no-one there who would believe in getting positive results from that for longer than it took for the incredulity to wear off?
Having just come from a “this is why we can’t have nice things” video of people robbing and vandalizing delivery robots on the streets of Austin, I feel like I should clarify one point:
It’s involuntary annexations, not voluntary admissions, where it’s considered acceptable for the satrap to give the “Now, you will all kindly conduct yourselves in a civilized and gentlesophly manner, lest I have to fuckin’ kill you all, savvy?” speech¹, and even then, it’s considered a very, very bad sign.
So, anyway. I have some candidates from East Asia.
One: Taiwan.
Who are a good candidate from the Empire’s point of view by virtue of being wealthy, civilized, and not known for the kind of social dysfunction that seems best solved by KEWs. From both perspectives, also in an excellent position to benefit hugely from infusions of capital, tech, and membership in the galaxy’s largest free trade zone.
And the elephant in the room: the PRC are getting increasingly inclined to threaten, bluster, and prepare to actually invade, and security guarantees from the US are seeming very words-on-a-page-y right now for those paying attention. The Empire, meanwhile, has an easily checkable reputation for faithfulness to its allies, and finds planetary nuclear powers an amusing if trivial challenge. (“Yah, detail a Sparkly Boy to low orbit, 'kay?”)
tl;dr if you’re probably going to end up as part of someone’s empire, you might as well pick the one that is interested in mutual profit and advancement rather than crushing the rebellious province, and which is absolutely not interested in forcing your entire society into the mold of Mao-Jinping Thought.
Two: Japan.
Repeat the first paragraph above, 'cause everything in it is pretty much the same.
Now consider that what they have to offer in this case is basically all carrot. They have a cure for demographic decline - or, at least, when you have immortagens, backups, and rejuvenation, you now have all the time in the world to solve your demographic decline, because no-one dies and everyone’s as young as they want to feel. Suddenly it takes a TFR only slightly above zero to maintain population.
(Although, really, my money says that that problem may also be self-solving inasmuch as anyone who can make this deal work is likely to observe their local economic figures going exponential with great rapidity, because of the combination of, on the one hand, picking places likely to grab the opportunity and run with it given half a chance, and on the other, the nice chaps at Gilea & Co. are basically poised to shovel capital into this sort of opportunity when it comes along.)
- He would prefer not to. But he has great respect for all your freedoms, including the freedom to suffer the consequences you were just warned about. Godsdammit.