Taiwan's balancing act

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former BBC Taiwan correspondent Cindy Sui meets two young Taiwanese voters, Shirley Lin and Dennis, who have very different views about the island, its future and its relationship with Mainland China. While one is a committed peace campaigner and seeks to reduce antagonism between Taiwan and China, the other has signed up to train with a citizen's army, to be ready for Chinese aggression. We follow them in their work, with their friends and hear their differing reflections on an island and an electorate being watched by a global audience.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Global Story is the podcast helping you make sense of the news.
0:07.0	Join me Katia Adler every weekday as I take a closer look at the stories making the headlines with insights from the BBC's global
0:14.8	network of experts. Search for The Global Story, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. is not the eyes? We're in a restaurant in Taiwan's largest city New Taipei and
0:37.0	Shirley Lynn a 25-year-old graduate student is introducing me to one of her favorite dishes.
0:43.0	So it is the eyes of the squid that have been fried into little fry balls.
0:50.0	It's amazing.
0:51.0	I've never had this dish before. How is it? It's really delicious. My favorite one. It's worth coming to Taiwan. Yes, please come to Taiwan.
0:58.0	Yes, please come to Taiwan.
1:01.0	Shirley's one of two people who have allowed me to follow them for a few days at this
1:06.2	momentous period in Taiwan's history as the island prepares for the 2024 presidential
1:12.3	election next month.
1:14.0	You have to think, how can I keep Taiwan safe?
1:19.0	How can I secure Taiwan's security and deal with the biggest threat from the other side.
1:26.7	If China want to fight in my country then I will fight back.
1:32.1	Dennis is 28 and a computer software engineer.
1:36.0	For him, this is a time of existential threat for Taiwan.
1:40.0	A threat that he believes may require him to take up arms to defend his country.
1:45.6	If it happens I can refuse it so I just embrace it and I wish I can just hold this promise until maybe the world is coming.
1:57.0	Yeah.
1:58.0	Maybe one day make them become our brother or even friends. This is what a responsible, I think, government has to think about.
2:09.0	I'm Cindy Sue, and this is the documentary on the BBC World Service.
2:16.0	I've been reporting about Taiwan for 15 years for much of that time as the BBC's Taipei-based correspondent. In the last two years have been by far the most
	...

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