Last week Tsai Ing-wen, president of Taiwan, and Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, met in California. Katie Stallard speaks to Paul Huang, a research fellow at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation and a journalist, based in Taipei, about the politics of the encounter. They discuss the calculations behind the response of China, which claims Taiwan as its own; how that could play into Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election; and the pace of Taiwan’s military reforms and how the self-ruling democracy is preparing to defend itself.

Read more:

Letter from Kinmen: Taiwan is already under attack

The diplomatic battle for Taiwan

 Asia’s dangerous new arms race

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