The PRC is bullying the whole planet, and people are letting them do it in name of profit.
But it isn't.
Officially Taiwan is not a sovereign country.
The status is controversial, it's similar to Catalunya in Spain (see what happened to Catalan leader Puigdemont) or Flanders in Belgium, but Taiwan is not officially a country.
I think that if someone called Fort-de-France a country, France would correct them.
On the other side of the spectrum, if someone says that Vatican and San Marino are Italy, they would protest.
China is not dissimilar from USA In this regards.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Catalonia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_Parliament
but they are not independent countries.
Catalunya has a quite conflictual relationship with Spain and the level of conflict has raised in the past few years.
Catalonia is not a country, Taiwan is not a country.
Some of us might think that they deserve to be independent, but that's not their current political status, so calling Taiwan a country is technically wrong, just like calling Catalonia a country.
In this specific example, if John Cena said that Catalonia is a country, Spain would have protested and probably asked Cena to correct himself.
This is about their current status, not about what they "deserve."
If only Catalonia was interesting enough for the US to send their army on the borders...
That's one big difference.
Anyway, de facto doesn't mean anything here.
Taiwan is officially not a country.
If you don't like the comparison to Catalonia, lookup Cyprus.
I mean, I understand that in US Taiwan is recognized as a country, in Italy Palestin is recognized as such too, but they are not officially sovereign countries and protest from mainland are to be expected because it's a very complicated international matter and of course China uses all the tools they have to support their position, just like the US.
Do you remember what happened when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel capital?
Conflicts over sovereignty on land are as old as the human race.
Cyprus?!? Everyone calls Cyprus a country! Because it is.
So yeah, that's a much better analogy to Taiwan. Because that's a country too.
If you are talking about India's spat with China in terms of territorial waters, I think the general consensus is that India is in excess of international law with its claims and China is conducting legal freedom of navigation operations just like the US does.
The SCS is an entirely different issue, where both China and Taiwan have made territorial claims that are largely illegal under international law.