In this Conflicted Conversation, journalist Chris Horton talks about his new book Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival.

Chris explains:

• Why China wants Taiwan and why the island is vital to control of the western Pacific.
• Taiwan’s strategic position in the First Island Chain between China, Japan and the Philippines.
• How a Chinese invasion, blockade or maritime quarantine of Taiwan could unfold.
• Why a war over Taiwan could devastate global trade and the world economy.
• What Taiwan’s fall would mean for US power, Japan and the Philippines.
• Why Taiwan is an independent democracy but still officially called the Republic of China.
• Who the Taiwanese are: Indigenous peoples, Hoklo, Hakka and post-1949 mainlanders.
• How martial law, dictatorship and democratisation created modern Taiwanese identity.
• Why the Kuomintang, once Communist China’s enemy, is now Taiwan’s most Beijing-friendly major party.
• Whether Taiwan could eventually choose closer integration with China through democracy rather than war.

Find Chris on X: www.x.com/heguisen

Visit Chris’s website: www.chrishortonwriter.com

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

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