How to Invent a Country

At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and Tainan City in the south to find out about this relationship with the Chinese mainland.

"I've obviously been following the situation in Ukraine, and it strikes me that before our eyes we're seeing the rapid development of a new Ukrainian consciousness and national identity. What's struck me about coming here to Taiwan is the same process is underway." Misha Glenny

Contributors include Amanda Hsiao senior analyst of the Crisis Group, Linda Jaivin the author of the Shortest History of China, and Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent for the New York Times now relocated to Taipei. Plus you'll hear from long time resident Chris Taylor, author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet. "All Xi Jinping understands is complete control .... he's given up on what the Taiwanese call the silver bullet, promises of great trade opportunities and get rich, join us. Nobody's buying that. So the only way he's going to get it is by force of some kind."

Taiwan is episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, the series that has previously travelled to Germany, Brazil, Turkey and Russia. Misha Glenny is a former Central Europe correspondent for the BBC and the author of McMafia. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde.

The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen

Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars

Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?

A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny

Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One

EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna

Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire

Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde