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I spent some time doing a lot of reading about the period 1945-1949 and then into the 50’s.

Japanese troops were in China. Chiang Kai Shek was the leader of China at that time and fought them. Japan had some of the major cities along the coast and the local police force continued to do their jobs about local crime.

Make no mistake here. Chiang was as corrupt as they come. Worse than whatever average you imagine. The US shipped aid to him and he skimmed, and bought gold and stored it in the national treasury.

Japan was defeated. Chiang was triumphant. But during the war he was also fighting Mao Zedong, who had the gall to actually have the support of the Chinese people. Communist or not, he had their support — and generally informed the Soviets they were not welcome and to be gone.

As Japan departed, Chiang came into the cities and executed all of the police leadership who had been keeping the lights on — for Japanese collaboration. Then just 4 yrs after triumph vs Japan, he managed to get kicked out of his own country — by Mao Zedong.

He and whatever troops (and family) he could gather fled for Taiwan. Taiwan had a Japanese culture. China had ceded Taiwan to Japan about 50 years before. They were never Chinese.

Oh, and btw, he also took the Chinese nation’s Treasury of gold with him.

Chiang arrived and he and his troops massacred the local leadership and populace in general. They took ownership of prime land and control of the government. They arranged for their children to maintain that control of the government for another 40-50 years. His wife had been raised in the US. He sent her, and big chunks of gold, to the US to buy some land for an estate and start bribing Congress. The bribes were effective. The US govt refused to recognize that Mao actually controlled China and called Chiang and his tiny population on Taiwan “Nationalist China”. It was that absurd.

So do not think Taiwan is some entity being abused and unjustly coveted. Chiang decided Taiwan was Chinese and eventually the world recognized mainland China as actually China.

Also consider what happens if China bombs and destroys the semiconductor industry on Taiwan and doesn’t bother to invade. Just bomb it and destroy it and nothing else. No, don’t fall for propaganda and think mainland China can’t have their own semiconductor foundries. They already do. But if Taiwan has none, very soon no one would care about them. They would eventually ask to join with the mainland.