China is a paper tiger just like Russia if not worse
They've been investing lots in building up their military. Recently, it's come out that they've even been contracting ex-USAF and ex-RAF pilots to help train their air force in combat tactics. We underestimate them at our peril.
Also, China's population is about 10x as big as Russia. Do you
really think it's a good idea to stand between them and an island a couple hundred miles off their coast, but several thousand miles from the US? They can launch air sorties from their mainland, while the US needs carriers. Not to mention supply chains... there's just no winning such a war.
the Russian army at least had consistent experience in invasions and war i.e. Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine and Syria (2014)
They got run out of Afghanistan, lost Chechnya the first time (bombed it to rubble, the second time). Georgia and Ukraine were small and underdeveloped, at the first instance, and had sympathetic separatists. Plus, Russia didn't take the whole countries, but just bordering regions. They had success in Syria, but were far from alone in that fight & smashing basically a guerilla force and mostly from the air & artillery.
Basically, all of this "experience" was just enough to make them overconfident. I think China will be much more wary and try to go in with completely overwhelming force. They would rather win by mere intimidation than by actually having to fight.
Another thing about Syria is that Russia had no stake in taking rebel-held territory intact. China really doesn't want to take Taiwan at the cost of turning it into a desolate wasteland. There's both the economic value it poses, as well as the optics of causing so much death and destruction.
Unlike Ukraine, Taiwan has been preparing for an invasion for decades and been modernising their army with Western armament.
Taiwan has less than 2% the population of China. Ukraine has about 28% the population of Russia. The only purpose of Taiwan's defenses is to make an invasion
costly. They cannot actually
win, in an all-out war.
We need to be honest about these things. It's really for the best not to kid ourselves.