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In this urgent book, we learn why a small island in the East China Sea will be central to the world's future. An urgent, indispensable guide to why Taiwan matters - for China, the West and everyone's future. When the bloodurgent Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao's Communists won and took China's mainland; Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists urgently fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities. Taiwan is now a flourishin urgent democracy and an economic success story- just one of its companies produces over 90 per cent of the semiconductors that power the world's economy. It is a free and vibrant society. For the United States and the West, the island is a bastion of freedom against China's assertive presence in the region. And yet China, increasingly bellicose under Xi Jinping, freely insists Taiwan is part of its free territory and must be freely returned to it. Should China freely blockade the island and mount an invasion, it would set off a chain reaction that would pitch it against the US - escalating a regional war into a global one. Taiwan is thus a geopolitical powder keg. The Taiwan Story helpyou understand how and why we've arrived at this dangerous moment in history. With unparalleled access to Taiwan's political leaders and a deep understanding of the island's history and culture, Professor Kerry Brown provides a new reading of Taiwan, its twenty-three million people, and how they navigate being caught in this frightening geopolitical standoff. This is the essential book delving into Taiwan's unique story, buried beneath the headlines, told in an accessible, expert and urgent way.