The island of Taiwan, lying 100 miles off the coast of Southeast China, has for decades been a strategic piece in the larger geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and China.
The conflict began in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist government fled to the island to escape the Communist takeover of mainland China.Fearing a Communist attack on Taiwan, the U.S. pledged to defend the island, establishing a military presence in the region over the next few decades. The U.S. still remains committed to Taiwan’s defense.
Chinese officials view America’s support of democracy in Taiwan as a provocation. While the island has its own constitution and elected leaders, Xi doesn’t view it as a separate nation and hasn’t ruled out the use of force to bring it under China’s control. Most Taiwanese residents believe that reunification with authoritarian China would spell the end of their free and open society.
“If we cannot hold on to these achievements,” says Su Chiao-hui, a Taiwanese lawmaker, “the lifelong struggles and striving of my contemporaries will be in vain.”
Democracy isn’t the only thing the U.S. wants to protect. Taiwan is a key trading partner and makes almost all of the world’s most advanced computer chips. But as tensions mount, some observers worry an attack on the island could be imminent.
Says Jia Qingguo, an international relations professor at Peking University, “The three sides have seen their interactions caught in a vicious spiral . . . the forming of a perfect storm.”