It doesn't matter if the Taiwanese were to fold and surrender military suddenly. It would still be a huge a catastrophe. The west would be forced to respond in

It doesn't matter if the Taiwanese were to fold and surrender military suddenly. It would still be a huge a catastrophe. The west would be forced to respond in ways that would be catastrophic for the world economy in a way that the Ukraine crisis doesn't even approach. There's no way normal trade relations could continue as they have. And the trading relationship between the west and China is the most important in the world. There'd be famine, hyperinflation, riots, and chaos all over the place. Even if an immediate war ended quickly, the following instability would merely pave the way for new ones. The best thing that can happen for the world situation is for the Chinese domestic political tone to step away from the brink with all the imperialist sabre rattling, and for the US to do the same. The second best thing is that elites in the west plan now to disentangle economic dependencies enough that if such a thing were to happen it would have less impact. There seem to be some moves on that front, but doesn't seem realistic overall.