The Taiwan Relations Act is not a treaty, and it does not promise defense.
You know as well as I do that a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, if one were signed, could not be ratified by this or any conceivable Senate.
You may not be politically tuned in enough to understand what the diplomatic language says, but the Chinese know exactly what the Taiwan Relations Act means...especially the “grave concern” input.
TRA..
“The act further stipulates that the United States will “consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States”.