Maybe the Chinese respondents hoped that the Lai Administration would eventually back down and seek a peaceful solution when he realises that the military/tech balance of power between China and Taiwan-US-Japan were so big that Taipei would have no choice but to seek a peaceful solution. I corroborate with the whole idea of winning without fighting. I think most Chinese would be absolutely fine with Taiwan maintaining permanent full autonomy (in trade, finance, participation in international organisations, FTAs, etc.) sans its own foreign policy and defence contrary to those of the PRC.
No, Taiwan will not even within the framework of "one country, two systems".
The patience of the officials and the public has been exhausted, and the period of preferential treatment to Taiwan is over, Taiwan can only choose between complete reunification by peace or complete reunification by force. Most mainlanders don't believe Taiwan will choose peaceful reunification, so force is pretty much the only option, it's just a matter of when.
While tourism&trade between Taiwan and the mainland ends, there is already very little contact between the populations, compassion and empathy based on daily contact fades, the mainland population's acceptance of war and collateral damage will continue to rise. Even though the authorities have been suppressing, "Keep the island but not the people(留岛不留人)" extremism has become more common. Of course, this means the same for the Taiwanese population, especially DPP supporters, but sorry, the PLA packs a bigger punch
