[acdha]

Is it propaganda that China blocks international recognition of Taiwan? That's not the same as troops on the ground but it's a pretty basic rejection of their sovereignty and it shows up all over the place accompanied by threats.

[trasz]

According to various polls about half of Taiwanese support maintaining current status quo; those who prefer independence are still a (growing) minority.

This alone, when compared with your assumptions, shows the rift between reality and western media rhetorics.

[acdha]

If you're familiar with the polls, you should also know that this issue is more complicated than how you're portraying it. The status quo isn't miserable so it's unsurprising that many people want to avoid forcing changes which have potentially disastrous downsides. That makes it important to specify exactly which polls you're referring to and what the options are.

Here's a good chart to consider for the history percentages of people who identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese or both. Clearly that has been moving solidly in the direction of an independent identity:

https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/upload/44/doc/6961/People202112.jpg

(Source: https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7800&id=6961)

Now, here's the chart from polls looking at what people want:

https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/upload/44/doc/6963/Tondu202112.jpg

(Source: https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7801&id=6963)

That shows a more complicated position: support for either immediate unification or independence has been a minority position for a long time but “maintain status quo, move towards independence” has grown from ~8% to 25% with a notable spike starting in 2019 and a decline in both “maintain status quo, decide at later date” and “maintain status quo, move toward unification”.