Other countries are similarly sanctioned, and hundreds of maintainers from those sanctions are still there. So the sanctions thing is absolutely just an excuse.
What Linus just did to Russians is scaring a lot of people right now, who are probably wondering if they should keep working in association with a project which has just demonstrated its unreliability.
Wrong phrasing on my part.
No matter which side you ask, the Republic Of China (ROC) or the People's Republic of China (PRC) Taiwan isn't a country, it is a region of the country of China. Saying that Taiwan is a country satisfies neither the ROC nor the PRC's claims