[js8]

Because war is economically expensive, they subscribe to certain philosophy and would prefer continue trading with Taiwan rather than turning it to rubble.

That being said, even if they would. Under that assumption, I find the idea to further provoke them to doing that morally repulsive. It's an egomaniacal move that disregards Taiwanese people.

[RivieraKid]

They have implied that annexing Taiwan is a key priority and that they are willing to use force if it turns out to be necessary.

"Provoke" means doing something with the intention to trigger an emotional or other reaction. That's not what Taiwan is doing.

[itishappy]

Provoke often just means just inciting a reaction. Intent is not included in all defections. If China reacts to this, then China has been provoked.

[lawn]

The calculation is a bit different for a dictator though.

They won't be affected personally (unless the country rebels against them) so they can be fine to tank the economy if it gets them closer to some other goal (such as megalomaniac world domination).