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[000:00:00;00] the political slash point. taiwan has 23000000 inhabitants and its main island lies only a 130 kilometers away from china's mainland. these tiny islands right off the coast are also under. ty, wendy's control, and chinese military drills around the whole of taiwan are getting bigger and more frequent. the in recent video is released by china as people's liberation army. beijing has threatened to n circle the island. it sees taiwan as part of its territory and says it's ready to use force if necessary to get it back. we'll talk more about the history and taiwan status later. for now,

you need to know that in the late 19 forties, there was a civil war in china between communist and nationalist the communists, one and took control of mainland china. and the nationalist fled to taiwan. that laid the groundwork for 2 days tensions. the us has an m beat us policy towards taiwan since the late 19 seventy's. it's recognized communist beijing as the only legitimate government of china. but it has in formal ties with taiwan and is seen as the islands protector. ok, let's go back to the map to understand why the us and china can quit taiwan in some ways. taiwan strategic importance is about 3 choke points around the island to the west. there's the taiwan strait. it's a key trade route for both beijing and taiwan. and also for everybody else,

almost all the world's biggest container ship passed through here to the north. to me, i go straight. it runs between taiwan and these japanese islands. and at the south, the bashi straight. it runs between taiwan and the philippines. for china, these 2 straits on either side of taiwan are key strategic gateways to the pacific ocean. a time one is in the middle of the chinese co slot, which is a very important this is victor gal. he's a former chinese diplomat and vice president of the center for china and globalization. amazing, think tank some say is close to the chinese communist party power. the island faces the pacific directly and it's about how it is. ok. i buy a foreign countries, for example, it interrupts the continue a t of the chinese coast line and also prevents the chinese excess directly to the

pacific ocean. the us says it has no troops permanently stationed in taiwan, but the island plays an important role and us strategy to understand why, let's look at the military bases in the region. here are some of the china, it's main. naval base is close to its coast and the us has some of its key bases in south korea, japan and the philippines. if you connect the dots, you'll see the us spaces form a chain. taiwan sits at the heart of what we call in the united states. the 1st island chain. david sacks is an expert at the council on foreign relations, a think tank in new york city. in the past, he worked at the american institute in taiwan, which serves as the de facto u. s embassy on the island. if you look at the 1st island chain, these are all formal trudy allies of the united states are closed partners in the case of taiwan. and with that,

the way it is united states can project power close to china. shores protect its allies and its interest. conversely, it's very difficult for the chinese military to project power outside of the 1st island chain and threaten united states physically or are interested in the endo pacific to strengthen this island chain. the us is expanding military cooperation with japan and the philippines, which are also wary of what they see as china is 6 expansionist goals. for example, just last year, the u. s. gained access to military bases in the north of the philippines. right next to the bashi, straight one of those chinese gateways to the pacific ocean. we mentioned here, you can see american and philippine troops conducting exercises in the waters nearby . earlier this year they even sank an old chinese build ship that the philippine navy used in the past,

a clear message to beijing. and obviously china is not happy about the us island change strategy. come all, well, not living in the 19th century. well, not really being in the imperialist countries century, using these out molded way of thinking as if you kind of set up a change to blog. for example, trying the overall accessing the pacific ocean. it's due because beijing is rapidly modernizing its navy in part to be able to break through the chain of us allies. for example, with the food g on aircraft carrier. here it is on c trials earlier this year. it's china's 3rd aircraft carrier, and the biggest chip in the chinese navy. the number one objective here is to keep the united states out of the region during the conflict. so we call and i access area denial, prevent the united states from being able to defend our treaty allies and partners

. so to sum up, taiwan is location makes it essential to both sides as they try to gain the upper hand and the region. but the rivalry is also about money, big money. economically, the small i island has an outsize importance for both china and the us, even though neither officially recognize, tie one as a country. both china and the us have significant trade links with taiwan. and much of that business comes from just one company, ts mc taiwan semi conductor manufacturing company. it produces micro chips. taiwan makes 90 percent of the most advanced ones in the world. both the us and

china are dependent on them. and so as everybody else there's a good chance t s m. c semi conductor is, are in the device that you're using to watch this video right now. they're in new cars, fridges and fighter jets everywhere. they're needed to develop new a. i models. and us leaders worried that losing taiwan to china could permanently shift economic tides against them. we don't assume that the region under chinese, for germany would be open to us, trade and investment. i think that china would reorder the region. they want the united states to basically supply them with raw materials that are turned into manufactured goods in china and, and sold all over the world. and there isn't really a rule for the united states or other industrialized countries in that. so why is

taiwan so important to beijing then to understand, let's dive back into history. china lost control over taiwan during what it calls the century of humiliation. these caricature is, of china being carved up by various foreign powers might explain why. from the mid 19th until the mid 20th century china was played by invasions and internal disputes . this is important because that notion of humiliation still plays a big role in chinese state ideology even today. in 1895 japan took taiwan from china and made it a colony after world war 2, the allies forced japan to give it back. but at the time, china was in the middle of a civil war. the government, if the republic of china or r o c was led by nationalists under chanc kashik, the now is that don't lead communist forces

against them. in 1949, the victorious communists marched into beijing and established the people's republic of china on the mainland. the defeated government of the republic of china fled to taiwan. that's why there are 2 governments that call themselves china, one on the mainland, the people's republic of china, or p r c. and on taiwan, the republic of china, or r o c. p r c. government in beijing seas taiwan as a break away province and says there's only one china, even though they've never actually been in charge and taiwan. most of the world except this one china policy, including the us. they don't recognize taiwan as an independent country. wait. so why is the us supporting taiwan that there's also a history to that after the civil war, the us initially saw the nationalist government in taiwan as the only real china

projecting the communist government on the mainland. us soldiers were even stationed in taiwan under a common defense packed. the change came in the 1970s. the us saw closer relations with beijing. that meant closing the u. s. embassy and taiwan and pulling out us troops. still informal ties persisted like that. dfcs sto embassy and the us still guarantees to sell taiwan weapons, but they have a deliberately ambiguous policy on whether they would defend taiwan. it's meant to prevent china from invading and taiwan from declaring independence. but that strange limbo has been the status quote in taiwan for decades, and it's created realities on the ground. taiwan developed from a nationalist authoritarian regime into one of the strongest democracies in the region. there are elections,

a free press and civil liberties. taiwan was 1st in asia to legalize same sex marriage this year. a progressive party was re elected for a 3rd term that going to maintain that 10 status quote. the taiwan has embraced the us worldview, which promotes democracy and capitalism. china is a one party system and a socialist market economy and a major chinese communist party narrative centers on taiwan. remember the century of humiliation we mentioned when china, los taiwan. well, chinese president cheese and ping seas bringing taiwan back into the fold as an important step in overcoming that humiliation. this is part of the so called national regional the nation, a revival of the chinese nation as a great power but which egypt paying?

i think you did see some inpatient season paying has clearly pushed himself forward as a leader of, you know, world historic importance. he views himself in a very similar way, i think, to vladimir putin, that he's just not a run of the mill leader. he's transformative no one, no country, no single human be, will be able to brock the peaceful reunification of china all the now peaceful or unification of china. so we should all call on the united states to pray with via excites are great, but for the us supporting taiwan also means keeping up key alliances in the region and promoting democracy. is china word to invade an annex, taiwan. we would see that democracy extinguish and it could send showing effects to democracies around the world if you would have deep questions being asked in south korea, japan and the philippines on whether they can rely on the united states for their

security. because of where taiwan is and what it represents, neither china nor the us are able to back down. and the rest of us are stuck watching the super power rivalry. play out the listen. see me. renatta flores is peruse queen of catch you. i wrapped the make polluters pay will the c o 2 time that you've all climates and all me educate is how guns close to schools, the changing the usa, the