Peaceful unification makes no sense

There’s a genre of essay that has been circulating in Taiwan-watcher spaces for a while now, and I think it carries enough analysis, and a critical enough reading of the situation, that it deserves to be engaged with rather than shouted at. The argument runs roughly like this: the status quo is a barrier lake that must eventually breach, China’s relative power only grows, America has turned from protector to racketeer while extracting TSMC’s leading edge to Arizona, and so the responsible, unsentimental move is to negotiate terms while Taiwan still holds leverage.