The Taiwan Story - How a Small Island Will Dictate the Global Future

<An urgent, indispensable guide to why Taiwan matters - for China, the West and everyone''s future

''An erudite primer . . . Brown''s mission to educate westerners about Taiwan and why it matters is a critical one, which makes this book well worth reading'' - ''Anyone with a care to avoid a third world war - between China and the US - should read this book'' JACK STRAW - ''An authoritative primer to all things Taiwan'' BARBARA DEMICK

When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao''s Communists won and took China''s mainland; Chiang Kai-shek''s Nationalists fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities.

Taiwan is now a flourishing 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, insists Taiwan is part of its territory and must be returned to it. Should China 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.


''As Brown shows so compellingly, anyone who thinks the Taiwan problem can be easily solved probably hasn''t thought about it for long enough''

''Kerry Brown is one of our most perceptive and accurate foreign observers of China'' JOHN SIMPSON

''Written with great knowledge, passion and insight'' MARTIN JACQUES<>...

Product details

• Authors: Kerry Brown
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 06.11.2025
• EAN: 9781405966092
• ISBN: 978-1-4059-6609-2
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 128 mm x 197 mm x 17 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Non-fiction book > History > Regional and national histories; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political theories and the history of ideas; China, Political Ideologies, Taiwan, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, HISTORY / Asia / General, Geopolitics, HISTORY / Modern / 21st Century, HISTORY / Asia / China, 21st Century, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Asian History, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, Political ideologies and movements, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General