Perhaps we all have it wrong?
The rhetoric about the reunification of China and Taiwan being the bogey man is all just bluster for the domestic audience, to keep them from seeing what a basket case the country is becoming.
They would struggle to take Taiwan and even if they did, the international backlash would be severe, likely crippling the Chinese economy further.
The metropolitan Chinese love their new improved "Western" lifestyle.
That would be seriously curtailed in a war with Taiwan and skirmishes with the US and Japan.
No doubt the Norks would join in and the South Koreans would have something to say about the situation too.
China has nothing to gain from this.