On top of that, the British only introduced a pretty limited form of democracy to Hong Kong shortly before it was supposed to relinquish control over the territory

On top of that, the Chinese dictator crushed democracy with military and police force in violation of the unification agreement – proving 100% it absolutely can not be trusted.

The PRC saw this as an attempt by the British to continue interfering with the right for Chinese self determination.

The Chinese have no rights whatsoever in the PRC regime because the Chinese cannot chose their own leaders and determine their own country’s destiny. By “right for Chinese self determination” you actually mean the DICTATOR’s right (one single individual!!) to prevent one billion Chinese citizens from running their own country as they see fit.

Even so, it’s important to understand

That’s not the slightest bit important. The Republic of China views the PRC as interfering with China’s self determination. The Republic of China gets to choose its own leaders but the PRC is a dictatorship not chosen by the people. That means that the ROC speaks for millions more Chinese than the PRC does.

If there is to be a peaceful resolution,

The only possible terms of reunification would be the end of the Communist dictatorship. In such an event Taipei would likely be the initial temporary capital of a unified China because that’s where the experience of democracy is.

The only ‘peace deal’ would be surrender. They would be returning the attacks on mainland China. They could easily reach any coastal areas: Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong etc.