There is no doubt that mainstream western propaganda media distorts and outright lies when it comes to China. There is also no doubt that anti-China rhetoric has been radically ginned up in the past three or four years for a number of reasons--mostly economic and not because China poses any kind of serious military threat.
Finally, there has been a concerted attempt by the Biden government to exploit the rift between Taiwan and China.
I'm no expert here but it seems to me that Taiwanese people do indeed recognize they have a historical relation to and cultural affinity with China. But overemphasizing that such ethnocultural factors are what divides Taiwanese people from China tends to obscure a more crucial element in Taiwanese resistance to unification: their antipathy toward the PRC’s autocratic political system and the repressive aspects of PRC policies.
That said, if there were a referendum for independence in Taiwan tomorrow, would the majority of Taiwanese vote for it? I don't think so--and that is probably because it would create the sort of political and economic upheaval that would likely lead to even more repressive measures.
From this more pragmatic perspective, Taiwan has enough problems without pissing off China by pressing for independence--not to mention that in many ways they are already functionally independent from China because they are not under the China Communist Party's direct control. They refer to themselves as the ROC (Republic of China) and as a representative democratic republic. China, or more accurately, the PRC (People's Republic of China) seem fine with this even if they regard the ROC as illegitimate.
The reality is likely that the Tawainese people see very positive economic advantages in maintaining good relations with China. As far as cultural identity is concerned 84% of Taiwan's population descends from Han Chinese who migrated from mainland China between 1661 and 1895--so they have an obvious historical and cultural relation to China even if there remain disputes and differences about whether Taiwanese identity is understood as a subset of a Chinese identity or comprises a distinct Taiwanese identity.
My sense from what I have read is that the majority of Taiwanese see themselves as having an identity distinct from the Chinese even though they might acknowledge a longstanding cultural, economic, and linguistic relationship with the latter. What neither China nor Taiwan needs is idiot, belligerent America interfering in their working through differences.
They know that America does not give a shit about Taiwan or the Taiwanese people, in the same way, they could care less about Ukrainians. They want only to exploit Taiwan like they are exploiting Ukraine in order to escalate cold-war hostility towards both Russia and China. The US, through NATO, has militarily encircled China just as they have Russia—their goal is complete domination of both with the US the as sole hegemon.
It is wise to keep in mind that the US is fundamentally oriented by violence and fear—they are threatened by China’s incredible economic rise and their growing economic relations with other nations. They fear Russia because it has control over vast natural resources which US corporations cannot get their hands on. A paranoid, ultra-violent, xenophobic nation, bristling with weapons of mass destruction, which
for the past 70 years has engaged in economic blackmail and the covert and open military invasion of weaker nations they deem not sufficiently subservient to their corporate economic interests is not one ANY nation should be friends with. The US should be considered a rogue, failed state.
There are a great number of beautiful places, progressive institutions, and kind-hearted, thoughtful people in America. There are also brilliant academic figures, wonderful writers, poets, artists, and historical and contemporary figures worth researching and learning about. Moreover, it goes without saying that China and Russia are, by no means, paragons of tolerance and democracy. They should not be exempt from critical scrutiny regarding their own oppressive political structures. But the reality is that these latter nations simply do not pose the kind of existential threat to the rest of the world that America now does—not even close.
Anyone who doesn’t get this is not looking with the requisite perspicacity at the facts on the ground, at America’s history of violence, their emerging embrace of fascism, and their domineering and bellicose relations with other sovereign states and political leaders who they consider intractable enemies.
Anyone who doesn’t get this is not making any real attempt to grasp the awful truth behind America’s obsession with becoming the Earth’s undisputed unipolar hegemon.