To contrast China's 'authoritarian', Westerners gave too many fulsome compliments to Taiwan's democracy, however, Taiwan's democracy  is at surface level.  USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,  2022-4-12, 2021-3-30:  There were allegations of vote buying by candidates and supporters of both major political parties in Presidential election in 2020.  Besides, Taiwan lacks good separation & balance of powers between the ruling party and the opposition, the executive and the legislative, the government and the media.  New York Post (4-25-2020) comments that Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian".   Global Times, 2022-8-11: under the guise of "democracy", the DPP authorities are practicing "green terror".  DPP, Taiwan's ruling party official website : human rights abuses occurs anywhere and anytime in Taiwan. (gotv.ctitv.com.tw/2020/12/1648383.htm)  The priority of the government's vaccine policy is to draw votes (electoral interest) instead of saving human lives, which is "cold-blood", "losing their souls " (ref. to China Times, 2021-9-7, United Daily, 2021-9-12, Guardian, 2021-8-14).  Taiwan's press freedom is ranked No.43 in 2020 and 2021.  At end of 2020, Taiwan shuts Pro-China TV channel first ever since Taiwan's liberation, which could have a "chilling effect, strongly impacting press freedom".   The Liberty Times, 1-12-2020, editorial: The administration's rottenness smells already.... It has shown a retrogressive trend in recent years, the freedom of speech, publication, assembly etc were persecuted by excuses such as national security (NHU paper, Jun. '20). Taiwan not only harm its democracy for national security, but also harm its national security for democracy. 

Now China keeps inching closer to Taiwan, Economist (2021-5-1) describes Taiwan as "The most dangerous place on Earth", western experts (e.g., Foreign Policy, 4-5-2021, 10-28-2020, Financial Times (UK), 7-12-2020 ) advise Taiwan to make urgent defense reforms such as increasing the existing four-month conscription and improving reservist systems, but, Taiwanese politicians are afraid to discuss this issue with the public because of electoral realities, Taiwan's leaders don't want to shift to a policy which could be deeply unpopular among the young voters courted by the ruling party (DPP), according to Foreign Policy (10-19-2020).  N.Y. Times, 2022-6-19: 'A Looming Threat'  ... but "politicians have electoral considerations".   Financial Times (UK), 2021-9-16 :Washington keeps scolding Taipei over its supposed lack of preparation against an ever mightier Beijing.  New York Times criticized Taiwan's nearly two million reservists "exist in name only" - but nothing big has changed till present.    

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has identified that Taiwan as part of its territory and its most important core interest, since the Kuomintang (Nationalists or KMT) government retreated to the island in 1949 following defeat in the Chinese civil war.  Beijing regards reunification of the mainland and Taiwan is priceless  and a   "sacred mission” ,  'do or die' prestige issue,  and has traditionally used a double strategy  of “carrot and stick”  towards Taiwan, on one hand, it has vowed to reunite this "breakaway province" by force if necessary, and has been ramping up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan since president Tsai I.W. (2016 ~) refused to recognise the "1992 consensus" a 'pseudo'-agreement made by Taiwan's KMT party and the Chinese Communist Party, that proclaimed "the existence of only one China ”, but “ with different interpretations ” (being free to decide which side was legitimate.).  In early 2019,  CCP Xi openly equates One Country Two Systems with the 1992 Consensus to eliminate other interpretations.   Under China's political development and strengthening its trade ties to our allies, Taiwan is diplomatically isolated, has only 14 formal relation allies till Dec., 2021, most of them are little, unknown countries. 

On the other hand, China took the "carrots" strategy ─ "Allowance of economic benefits to Taiwan"("讓利" ) so that Taiwanese people may have higher tendency toward unification with China ―― about 52% Taiwanese want closer economic ties with the mainland China.  Brookings, 1-22-2021: Only 23% Taiwanese thought that democracy was more important than economic development.  Washington Post, 2017-1-2:  83 percent chose bread ( economic ties with China) over romance (political independence).  Taiwanese understood this interdependence is unavoidable, but over-dependence is risky.  Foreign Policy, 2021-4-14: Taiwan and China are locked in economic co-Dependence.  Japan Times, 2021-7-5: China could try to strangle Taiwan economically.  Global Times, 2021-9-20: Taiwan has a trade surplus of more than $100 billion a year with the Chinese mainland.  Bloomberg, 2022-8-6, NDTV, 2022-8-4: China is the biggest trading partner of Taiwan.  Exports to Mainland China are 40 per cent of total exports. But after China's largest ever drills around Taiwan to respond Pelosi's visit, New York Times (2022-8-7) comments the policy carrots that China has used to entice Taiwan toward unification may carry even less weight.

President Tsai (ruling party DPP) in her inauguration speech at 5-20-2020 reiterated that Taiwan calls for stability in China relations but would reject being ruled by China in the same way Hong Kong is.  Washington Post (7-22-2020) reports: In a major speech in January 2019, Xi offered an ultimatum to Taiwan to come to the table for unification talks or face annexation by force.  Then, in Mar., the PLA warplane crossed the Taiwan Strait "median line" that has served as a "de facto border" (Newsweek, 8-11-2020) or "the de facto cease-fire line" ( Japan's asia nikkei review, 8-13-2020) for the first time since the end of Chinese civil war in 1949 (Newsweek, 8-12-2020). However, Taiwan's government was tight-lipped about this ultimatum, a everyone's life-and-death issue,  according to National Interest (6-16-2020): more than 60.3 percent of the respondents opposed Taiwan's independence if it is followed by China's military invasion...

Yomiuri Shimbun, Opinion, 6-22-2017 stated the US is the key to keep the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait ("米国は台湾の防衛力強化を担っており、台湾海峡の平和と安定のカギを握る"。).   The United States,  Taiwan's most important protector,  “acknowledges” there is one China and Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially “recognized” Taiwan as part of China.  The US Congress passed a law ("Taiwan Relations Act") to commit the US to defend Taiwan's sovereignty, and provide necessary 'defensive' services.   After Biden's 4th remark about defending Taiwan in Sept. 2022, it looks like the US has moved from strategic ambiguity to deterrence...  But CNN (2022-9-20) comments Biden's remarks don't necessarily equate to how he would behave in a real crisis.  

Till Fall 2022, seeing US' actions on the Taiwan run counter to its clear political promise, the Chinese increasingly and really believe that the U.S. government is “salami slicing” and “hollowing out” the One China policy (US also blames China's salami-slicing behaviors against Taiwan ), as Beijing's ambitions grow and relations between the U.S. and China deteriorate.  Anyway, China has long assumed that the US would intervene to defend Taiwan - maybe not sending their troops.