China gearing up it's military?

This CNN article suggests that it is, with Tiawan as the target. I hope nothing comes of this and China continues to bluster without taking action against Taiwan for they next fifty years. China’s fixation with Taiwan has always been something of a mystery to me. As far as I know, Taiwan has nothing of great value that China needs, other than the prestige of taking back something that they regard as theirs. I understand that admitting Taiwan is a separate nation and abandoning any claims on it would mean a loss of face, but even so I find it hard to understand how stubborn they are about it. Abandoning its claims on Taiwan would be a huge diplomatic coup paving the way for much greater international acceptance of China and would certainly cause an easing of tensions between China and the United States.