> The US and its allies continue to support Taiwan because it is a vibrant democratic state with liberal values

I agree with almost everything you said except the above. The biggest reason of supporting Taiwan is because it’s a strategic counter-balance against China.

The U.S has supported Taiwan ever since 1949, but Taiwan was a brutal military dictatorship back then ruled by KMT. We supported them because it was the Cold War and they were anti-Communists.

Taiwan didn’t have their first democratic presidential election until the 90s.

Same for South Korea. We supported them because they were anti-Communists, not because they were a liberal democracy. SK didn’t become democratic until much later after the Korean War.

Now Taiwan being a liberal democracy gives us one more reason to support them, but it wasn’t the original driving factor.

Things like “we support democracy” is what the US government uses to sell our policies to the public, but history shows that we care most and foremost for American interests. Afterall we’ve overthrown democracies to install pro-US dictatorships and even today we are ally with countries like Saudi Arabia.