i blue with you guys that with melissa chime is next, i'll be back at the top. i'll be out with enjoying the view. come take a look at this. our tv highlights every week in your inbox, subscribe. now, imagine that you're eating a hamburger. and as you're biting into this juicy burger, your dining companion says to you,

actually that hamburger is not made from house. it's made from golden retrievers. should meet. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 in meeting cultures around the world, people learn to classify a small handful of animals as edible and all the rest they classify as disgusting. docu series about our complex relationship with animals. the great debate this week on d. w. ah. here watching the w news asia coming up today we take a closer look at tie one china relations, beijing ease tensions, and a highly controversial meeting. top officials, there seemed to suggest it's possible if only ty, ones opposition party were in charge, plus, willing to die for another country,

the story of taiwanese volunteer fighters who travelled all the way to ukraine. ah, i melissa chan, thanks for joining us. a visit to beijing by a delegation of politicians from taiwan main opposition party, the coming dog. the camp t for short has been closely watched and controversial, controversial because china has sent almost 2000 fighter debts into ty, ones, air defense identification zone over the past 12 months. so the cam tease, overtures, come at a time that to tie ones, government empower the democratic progressive party seems badly timed, but the can t says engagement is necessary, especially when the fact is that so much business is done between the 2 sides. in the meetings, however,

of top beijing officials comments about politics not business, grabbed the headlines. china warned the k m t that it needs to oppose taiwan independence. joining us as mar changes jeff ski head of the taiwan office at the european values center for security policy. thanks for coming on to the program. i'm marching the can tease. visit is raising eyebrows, but they recently performed very well in elections. so can you 1st talk about that and why the party performed well? of all thank you so much for having me on today. and yes indeed, it came to the visit to china. is there anything out of eyebrows also considering the broader to your political context and a 3rd or deepening of rifts in the relations between the united states and china? as we have seen, for example, during for balloon gate. however,

since you mentioned their recent electoral success of the key and the something that we really have to bear in mind is that in the context of power and politics, local elections tend to be very local voters, return to the places where they hold their household registration to deliberate on issue such as traffic safety or subsidies for local welfare programs. their local elections are not a referendum on the geopolitical future of taiwan. they are not a referendum on their future direction of developments over taiwan strait. so as we leaned closer to the upcoming 2020 for presidential and legislative elections, i would be very cautious not to extrapolate too much from her recent performance overcame tea in local elections. of course, for example, the decision of president saying when to resign from the function of the chair, person of the democratic progressive party is assign event,

the d p. p needs to regroup after a less than satisfactory performance in the local contests. but it shouldn't be viewed as a pressure result for what's about to happen in 2024. got it. and so right after these elections, which the came to did do well, as he explained, which is a big blow to president ties party as they had up to bay gene. so has this being received by the tower and he's public the opinions are definitely makes if this visit is not taking place in the back. you, robert, we should view it in light of the changes in so to say core political attitudes of the taiwanese electorate. and as a matter of fact, the push of the done to pursue closer ties with china is not consistent with what we see in new all of the to the no opinion on the research. so,

for example, as of 2022 over 60 percent of respondents that are present, that studies identify exclusively as taiwanese over 30 years of it's, we have data for that figure has increased by over 50 percentage points. so, taiwanese identity is increasingly independent in the sense of being distinct from the chinese identity. as people in taiwan are increasingly assertive about assuring their right to have this identity. this means that there is some, there are some calls about the under utilize potential of this visit because the mainland 1st council, the main executive body in charge of cross street relations in the convict executive has caused them to go down to use this visit as a way to convey the will of taiwanese people to maintain their democratic way of life. however, that didn't seem to be high up on the agenda,

which instead focus primarily on economic relations. the well being of over $1000000.00 pay when nice business people in china and efforts to restore more viper on trade relations between both sides on taiwan with this visit and is suggesting there be better relations, less aggression with the k m t empower so despite the fact that citizens tend to focus on the bread and butter local issues and care less about foreign policy. how might all of this impact towns, presidential elections next year? this visit, particularly and, and things that might happen beyond despite the electoral success of the going down in the recent local electoral contest. the party is very much a major or soul searching exercise. so this was again, despite their very successful performance in local elections,

the overall support or party identification of parents electorate with the government down on decline. if we look at the data year on year between 20212022. the identification with dunk has gone down by as much as 3 percentage points from 17 to 14 last year. meanwhile, the quickest growing body of voters in taiwan are those who identify as political independence. i think that this is a pet trent that we have to monitor very closely. also as new players emerge on the taiwanese political scene, for example, that they want people's party of the former mayor of type the city. cohen's or who is very likely to issue a presidential bid himself his party is also traditionally aligned with the pen flu camp. so the political block surrounding the women done and i

believe it, especially if the came he were to nominate and more a more moderate candidate for the presidential elections in 2024. we might see a split in the, in the blue color in taiwan. that'll be very interesting to watch now and you know, so we've talked about the islet remaining pretty divided when it kind, when it comes to the kind of relationship it has with aging, with some pretty strong feelings from those opposed to better relations with china . people who feel taiwan is a democracy and not like china with its authoritarian system. i think i want to share with viewers a story from our type, a reporter catch one year about a young chinese man who went to ukraine to join the fight. take a look with the men who recorded the this is tony, do he crossed a war front? i want to fight for ukraine. faith and we're told unfair of asia. the shells were

flying around me, volumes of meal, but once a bomb fell in front of my trend shell radar, i was lucky. it didn't explode. just i couldn't believe it is. i went on gun via he went to you. cranston, after the war, started to help refugees that he saw things that made him want to fight. so it's all. this was early in the war. they said it was only a special military operation, but they also bomb people's houses. this is domino's pizza, laura. so i joined the battle 200. he says, just as he played his part in helping you cren, so can taiwan, despite china's efforts to isolate the island diplomatically, he's proud of being a taiwanese woollen tier soldier. my niece lou come true taiwan, frontier. cuba. okay, people yet. oh, love oh going do is home now after 3 moms in ukraine. he had

spend most of his money. he now has a job at a supermarket and is happy to have got home alive. do new, another man who flew thousands of kilometers to fight in ukraine, but didn't come home since and grant is the 1st and so far, the only taiwanese to die fighting for ukraine. i went to an a taiwanese sacrificed his life for the freedom of another country. over me, he's a hero. this many other men who wrote dear names on this flag half. oh, so die the tiresome, you're loosing him. lean tire experience makes it difficult for him to sleep. but he said, i want you to treat the ucr. a war is a wake up co worker. huh? yeah, the ukrainian people are very united. but when i look at ty, ones, why are we so divided in the face of china's possible invasion once when we never said we want to attack others, you know, it's, they who want to attack us with,

why are we not united you do has loaned his war gear to an air soft don training facility, which he visits to talk about his time in ukraine. he hopes to inspire all the taiwanese people to take civil defense seriously and be ready for if china does attacked. marching you are in taipei and your organization is called the european values center for security policy. just what is your reaction to tony's volunteers in ukraine? tell us about the connection. absolutely, i do not think said there push to contribute to the defense of ukraine among the taiwanese population, even at the highest level of sacrifice, meaning volunteering, to go to fight a battle ground is surprising at all. and as we try to find an explanation for

this great, so the doroty base momentum, i think that we can circle back to what we talked about just a few minutes ago, mainly the trends in taiwanese identity. so people of taiwan are increasingly proud of their own identity and are increasingly willing to assert it. but it also because there's space to manifest a distinct taiwanese identity is fairly new. it was hard to watch over decades of pay was transition to democracy and it is not taken for granted. and i believe that there is onset of the full scale russian invasion of ukraine has really cemented that the fact in the pony psyche that a democracy nor taiwanese nurse can be taken for granted and have to be effectively defended in light of growing chinese belligerence. it's certainly

a fascinating connection that we have seen my change here, jeff ski, thank you so much for joining us. thank you so much for having me. that's it for today. you can always learn more on our website, and of course you can check us out on social media. my name is melissa chant, in berlin. thanks for watching. with women clued as a women in technology law melinda lead the sound is providing gonna with a digital future for a better life, with their phone skills supporting young people to go into into financial, getting more women into the technology series found is valley africa

with secrets lie behind these walls, discover new adventures in 360 degrees and explore fascinating world heritage sites with d w world heritage 360. get the app now you are. c a decent livelihood and my understanding is really your ability to afford the basic necessities to be able to provide a good education for yourself and your family access to proper health care access to disposable.