That would be silly, California is what it is today because it is part of the United States. The ports by themselves bring in a lot of money and being another country introduces two new borders that the United States would want to avoid and go around. It also has a lot of money in the financial sector, which would gain significant extra barriers and costs with the rest of US businesses if it wasn't part of the US. Plus the only places where you get majority support for that sort of thing in more dense urban areas and losing large chunks of the state's landmass would definitely hurt the California economy.

If California separated from the US, most of California would separate from California and rejoin the US.

Read about the "State of Jefferson" movement, etc. The Coastal cities in California are really a completely different place from the rest of the state, and the rest of the state is pretty dissatisfied with this union.

California's economy is so big because it's part of the American economy. California gets credited for Google, but most of the suckers clicking on ads and making Google rich aren't in California, most of Google's workers aren't in California. Cutting off California from that would be way dumber than Brexit.

And then China steps in to protect California from getting annexed by the United States.

>Like Taiwan

I see what you did there.

One good earthquake and you might get your wish.

I personally yearn for the balkanisation of the US. That's unironically why I think a TEXIT would be very beneficial to the rest of the world. The more the Empire fights itself, the weaker it is, and the freer the world becomes.

Taiwan is not free.