Just my $.02 cents.
We have a treaty with Tawian. This treaty is the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty (see
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty - Wikipedia). Basically what it says is:
The treaty consists of ten main articles. The content of the treaty included the provision that if one country came under attack, the other would aid and provide military support.
The treaty was limited in application to the defense of the island of Taiwan and the Pescadores only. Kinmen and Matsu were not protected by this treaty. Therefore, the US stood aside during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. The treaty also discouraged the Republic of China from initiating any military action against mainland China, since only Taiwan and Pescadores were included and unilateral military actions not supported.
Now the only problem with the idea that some of you have is the idea that the U.S. should not come to the aid of Taiwan is in that we have other mutual defense treaties with other countries. If Taiwan came under attack and the U.S. stood down what signal would this send to the other countries we have treaties with? Very simple...you can not trust the U.S. to live up to their commitments.
As a military veteran I abhor war, but I value my countries freedom more than I abhor war. Therefor we must standup to Chinese aggression because once the Chinese Communist party sees that we will give up anything to avoid a armed conflict with China and or Russia either one or both of them will continue to test the U.S.
I wouldn't want to see it, but I don't know what the future would hold if we didn't live up to our commitments.