Taiwan's position is a bit like the question of Japan being nuked or not. Its fairly important from an economic point but not nearly as important as Japan. But from its geographical location it is strategically important. Air and naval forces based in Taiwan can range over the South China Sea, the East China Sea, much of mainland China and into the Pacific. During the Second World War the island of Formosa (Taiwan) was heavily used by the Japanese as a base of operations for precisely this reason, and US forces heavily bombed Japanese bases in Formosa because of it.
Even if Taiwanese forces were not present on mainland China I would be certain that US air and naval forces would be based in Taiwan during the Sino-Soviet War and the first year of the Twilight War. I could not see Taiwan being blanketed with nuclear strikes by the Soviets, but certainly a few low yield nukes against a few ports and airfields to deny them to the Americans.
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