I think China will be able to takeover Taiwan without a fight once China achieves enough large GDP and military power. Taiwanese will essentially negotiate terms.
Beyond 2050 anything is possible. However, if the CCP wants peaceful absorption of Taiwan I think it would help being clearer about what post-unification for Taiwan means. Hong Kong was supposed to be the model for Taiwan, but given the events of the last 12 months it's unlikely to be desirable. Xi recently offering "Hong Kong Plus" is equally unhelpful, because it still suggests a form of autonomy that is at its core an illusion.
Also, unless Taipei sells out the island and lets the PLA just walk in to occupy it, negotiating Taiwanese politics would be difficult. Merging with the PRC means constitutional change, which in turn requires a supermajority in the legislative yuan and a successful public referendum. For that to happen would require decades of political engagement from Beijing (8 years of KMT rule with Ma didn't even get initial talks on political methods to achieve unification) and ideally no more military threats, as well as some sort of way to protect Taiwanese autonomy without the CCP having the right to revoke or curtail it because they were unhappy with an election result.
This is exactly what is happening now with Taiwanese provoking China pretty much every day by introducing bills to change national emblem, remove reunification clause from the constitution and changing the passport.
These are pretty minor issues that don't do anything to change the de jure position so cannot be called a provocation. Taiwan isn't even proposing to change its constitutional claims to bits of territory the PRC has surrendered to its neighbours.
There are also practical reasons for wanting to make those changes. For example, breaking the link the KMT fostered between itself and the ROC state. Taiwan is now a multi-party state, so it is understandable if non-KMT parties want to make it harder for it to pretend to be the natural party of government.
Similarly, as Taiwanese passport holders can get visa waivers to a much larger number of countries than Chinese ones do, there could be benefits in emphasising the difference to avoid confusion. Few immigration officers outside of Asia are going to immediately understand the difference between the ROC and PRC, but Taiwan is a lot clearer.
They can for example Fly over Taiwan and shoot down some Taiwanese planes. For even more forceful response, They can destroy some air force bases or defense installations.
A strong action would be to destroy all of Taiwan's Air force and air defenses and create a Chinese control Air space over Taiwan.
That's going to escalate matters, not act as a "warning". China could conceivably avoid a full military escalation or unilateral declaration of independence with an "accidental" shooting down of a single ROCAF plane. But intentionally attacking the Taiwanese military will probably lead to a UDI, because the assumption will be that an invasion is going to follow within the next 6-12 months. It would also have a high risk of making the US recognise Taiwan diplomatically or positioning military assets in a direct position to protect Taiwan.
If China wants to avoid conflict, destroying military assets and killing people isn't the way to do it. Waiting until past 2050 as you initially suggested would be much more sensible.
