I was reading about presidential elections around WW2 and of course that included past history of some of the issues that persist to today.
"All of Truman's advisers saw the events in Korea as a test of American will to resist Soviet attempts to expand their power, and their system. The United States ordered warships to the Taiwan Strait to prevent Mao's forces from invading Taiwan and mopping up the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army there."
Stuck out because we are still dealing with the aftermath of WW2, Korean and Taiwan. What's changed today is the enabling of China by the US to invade Taiwan. US businessmen, including all recent billionaires, sought to cut cost by exporting jobs to China.
They succeeded and through that they put the US in a hard place. Billionaires who don't want to fund the government by getting "tax breaks" and want to keep the US military funded by starving the other portions of government. The idea that billionaires should pay more in taxes to pay the cost of the damage they've done in the world is the least cost they must pay.
US government was convinced by businessmen that China would change its government and attitude about taking Taiwan via trade. China would just turn into a capitalist utopia either by inertia or the will of its people was the information fed to the US governments. This was clearly bullsh*t.
Taiwan can only be successfully invaded by China today because of it's proximity to China, the rapid technology transfer to China via trade with Western countries, China's rapid military build up with conventional and nuclear means, short and long range, and no treaty.
The US only has China's patience and vague remarks of coming to Taiwan's defense going for it at this point. China's been able to show it has rapid mobilization to block trade with Taiwan and pelter it with missiles. Taiwan's already part of One China, it just hasn't realized it. Declaring independence will only accelerate the realization.
It's just a cost of history and doing business. Why do you think gRumpy gRump is so hellbent on letting Taiwan go defenseless? Businessmen don't care for Taiwan or its identity and would rather China be given it peacefully, under the guise of "self administration" or whatever, negotiating access to things like Taiwan's chip manufacturing industry.