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Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu.

Every episode, I'll be talking to journalists,

experts and long-time China watches about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.

There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well.

How do the Chinese see these issues?

There have been numerous headlines in recent days about what China could do to Taiwan,

with warnings that if the US doesn't intervene, China might militarily take the country over

within the near future. But what is the deal with Taiwan? It's a series of islands to the

south-east of China and only a seventh of the size of the UK.

So why would Beijing care about it? Is it just about resources or is it about something a bit deeper than that?

I'm joined today by Rana Mitter, a historian of 20th century China and Moore, whose latest book is China's Good War, as well as Jessica Dren.

A Taiwan and China analysts joining us from

the States, who is a non-resident fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank that promotes

American interests in the Indo-Pacific. We planned this podcast before the horrific train derailment,

which happened in Taiwan on Friday, which is yet another reason that Taiwan is in the news at the

moment. But Rana, to start with, maybe you can give us a brief history lesson which elucidates

...