This is CBS. I On the World. I'm John Batchel. I welcome Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang,

my colleague and co-host. And we begin with a conversation with our colleague and Stevenson Yang,

who is in Taipei, Taiwan, in the midst of what continues to be a standoff between the United

States and its allies and the People's Republic of China over the correct understanding

of Taiwan's future.

I read this headline that seems relevant to the contest within these last hours.

Chinese ship severs undersea cables around Taiwan.

Taiwan is accused a Chinese-owned ship of severing a critical data cable of its northern coast Friday last.

Officials in Taipei discovered that four cores of an international submarine cable,

which transmit data to America's

AT&T, were left ruptured on January 3rd. Surprisingly similar to questions raised about a Chinese ship

with a Russian captain in the Baltic severing a cable into the Scandinavia when Finland remains investigating.

Odd business.

And a very good day to you in Taipei.

I'm presuming your data has not been disrupted and we're having a good conversation.

How is the weather in Taipei these days?

And I don't just mean climate weather.

I mean the political weather.

Good day to you.

Could day.

Well, I would say that both are very pleasant compared with the U.S.

So the weather here is sort of in the 60s, very balmy, you know, sunny, whereas at home it's sub-freezing. And politically,

...