I've found the term "independence" to be ambiguous when discussing Taiwan. Everyone knows Taiwan is effectively an independent state. But in practice, it is less clear where the government or people of Taiwan stand on the topic. For example, Taiwan has agreed to participate in the Olympics under an ambiguous name, Chinese Taipei. Which is purposively designed to appease notions of independence from China.

For me, it would encompass the idea of a formal declaration of the Taiwan state. Perhaps even renaming the country from RoC to Taiwan to further solidify that notion, which I think does not have popular support in Taiwan. In fact, the PRC has clearly stated that military action would occur if Taiwan "declared independence". So, instead of "declaring independence", I hear that Taiwan instead says "well, we don't have to declare independence, because we already are. So, we aren't going to declare it." Which to me sounds like: "We would officially and unambiguously declare independence, but we are afraid of what the PRC would do if we did. So, instead we are going to act like we don't have to do it because we already are independent.. even though we won't declare it". I don't know.. I'm probably just confused.