Taiwan has rarely been an integral part of China. In 1895, the Japanese took over Taiwan and ruled it until the end of WWII with Japan. Japan was forced to leave Taiwan. The Republic of China was engaged in a Civil War with various warlords from 1911 through 1936, when it was invaded by Japan. After the Japanese were forced out, the Civil War, now mostly between the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai Shek and the Red Army led by Mao and Chao Enlai lasted until 1950 or so, when the last of the Kuomantang took refuge in Taiwan with the protection of the US Navy. Had they been truly clever, they would have taken over Hainan Island as well, but they didn't, so that point is moot.
Eventually, Taiwan became democratic. The bogus "delegates" in the ROC legislature from provinces that the ROC had not controlled since 1950 died off, as did Chaing and Chaing, Jr. and eventually rule of Taiwan by the Taiwanese majority in the Green Party and its allies came to pass. Taiwan has a population of 22 million and one of the highest standards of living in Asia. Most of the People's Republic is Third World economically, poor and far less well educated.
In 1917, Albania became independent, with its own king. The Slovenians, Serbs, Montenegrans, Macedonians, Bosnians & Herzegovinians and Croats were all federated into Yugoslavia. The Albanian and Hungarian speaking people were not given their own republics within the federation, supposedly because there was already and independent Hungary and an independent Albania.
Yugoslavia was largely the product of Wilson's insistence that each nationality should have its own country. No one important actually gave a crap about Yugoslavia, as they did about Alsace-Lorraine or the Saar or even Poland, so lumping eight nationalities into a federation of six republics under a king did not seem to be a bad idea.
After WWII, which made Albania a colony of Italy for several years and deeply divided the Croats (mostly pro German) and the Serbs (mostly pro-Russian) into two bunches, somehos the country was held together, largely by force rather than agreement under Marshal Tito. When Tito died, Yugoslavia became six nations.
During the period 1940-1990 or so, thousands of Albanians fled Albania, which was by far the most oppressive and poorest country in Europe. Most of them ended up in Kosovo, which was at one time the seat of Christian Serb resistance to Ottoman rule.
Here is the problem: the US has decided that Kosovo must be independent (and, curiously, not a part of Greater Albania), because that is what the Kosovars want. Taiwanese do not have the right to decide that they don't want to be part of the People's Republic.
Serbia is somewhat poor, less so than Kosovo, but is now democratic. Somehow the state department has decided that Kosovo must be independent from Serbia, but Taiwan must, no matter what the people of Taiwan want, must be part of the oppressive PRC.
I suggest that this sucks in a rather bigtime fashion. I suggest that the US' stance on this is rather pusilanimous, perhaps even racist: white Kosovars have a right to self-determination, but yellow Taiwanese, despite their far higher level of education and competence at pretty much everything, when compared with the Kosovars, do not.