I think you are missing the point, it’s not what you and I think is right it’s the way China views Taiwan, they believe Taiwan was and always will be part of greater China.
There is no way China will allow Taiwan to become an independent country aligned and armed by the USA, it’s taken China decades to believe they on par militarily with the USA, they may not fully believe that now at some point they will
>>”I think you are missing the point, it’s not what you and I think is right it’s the way China views Taiwan, they believe Taiwan was and always will be part of greater China.”
They may view it that way, but they view a lot of things through a selective lens that filters out the fuller picture. Chinese control of Taiwan only stretches back about 350 years. But leaving that aside, the CCP’s view of themselves as the rightful inheritors of Chinese civilization is certainly a matter of contested opinion. The Taiwanese would likely have a differing opinion.
>>”There is no way China will allow Taiwan to become an independent country aligned and armed by the USA...”
That’s a bit of a mischaracterization, as Taiwan already IS, ipso facto, independent and has been for the last 73 years, whether the CCP likes it or not. They’ve been independent for as long as the CCP has existed. This charade of pretending they aren’t, just demonstrates how the CCP’s view of reality is distorted by their ideology. So, we’re not talking about Taiwan “becoming” independent, although the CCP would like to frame it that way. We’re talking about Taiwan maintaining their independence. The CCP’s revisionist justifications hide their true motives, which are political. Taiwan’s continued independence is a challenge to the CCP’s legitimacy, not to Chinese civilization.
One good hit by Taiwan on the Three Gorges Dam, and the whole thing isn’t worth it.
So that must be part of any Chinese decision calculus.