That island contains the true government of China and the CCP will do whatever they can to hold onto power so I don’t think they’ll be fine until one destroys the other.

Moreso, before the West brought back the issue in the mainstream, regular travel between China and Taiwan could be made relatively easily.

Anything unusual going on at the time of that pretty graph which might have an impact on global trade? In any case, this doesn't seem relevant to why the CCP is quaking in their boots at tiny Taiwan and exerting the kind of pressure described in the article.