A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a bloody, logistical nightmare

If you mean by "economically", very few shots fired, then yes they did.

However had Britain not ceded it to them, then no, it would not have been economical.

Economically? Are you kidding? economics had ZILCH to do with anything. The UK's lease on the Kowloon Peninsula was about to run out and the island of Hong Kong itself was militarily indefensible without Kowloon, so the Brits made a bad deal with the ChiComms. It's a shame and a scandal that they didn't give the residents citizenship and the option to emigrate before the CCP inevitably broke every promise it make to the UK.

They're actually doing it demographically. More than 2/3 of the Taiwanese civil service is married to mainlanders, though it's a bit lower in the general population. The problem with that is that breeding Taiwan back into the fold isn't fast enough for the arbitrary deadline they've set themselves, and not meeting that deadline would be a serious blow to the legitimacy of the CCP. They might even lose the Mandate of Heaven (天命) over it. If Cacklin' Kammy had won, they'd probably have gone for the military option in 2027.

Never should have left!

Yes, shortsightedness thou name art politicians!

Two things. First, the political climate of the Phillipines government was very anti-US at the time. Second, the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo buried Clark Air Base and damaged Subic Bay's infrastructure.