China and Taiwan

Markku points out that China has been demanding reunification with Taiwan for 50 years now without actually doing anything about it, so nobody gets particularly alarmed when it does it again. That's true, but ever since Taiwan has been seriously considering declaring independece, China has become a lot more more active in its demands, although it is still not doing anything about it. And yes, this time they did not actually threaten to attack, but "reunification is more important than our lives" still sounds like a not-so-veiled threat of violence.