Eyck Freymann

And for him, the fact that there was this other China right across the strait, which at the time enjoyed the Chinese seat in the UN Security Council, was recognized by most of the world as the one true China.

This was a fundamental question of the legitimacy of.

of the Chinese Communist Party.

And so it became this totemic propaganda point that we will liberate Taiwan from the imperialists.

And in the process, we will make China whole.

We will fix this historical wrong that we were separated under this century of humiliation.

And therefore, for us to be fully rejuvenated as a civilization, Taiwan has to be brought to heel and the world must accept.

It's not just about control over Taiwan.

It's about political legitimacy.

The United Nations must accept.

The United States must accept that Taiwan is part of China and there's only one China in the world and the Communist Party is the only legitimate government.

So this is why it's sensitive.

It's not just about the status of Taiwan.

It's about what China means.

And that has always been bound up in competition with the United States.

it depends how far back you want to go back in the 17th century the dutch had a presence there as the ming empire was falling apart you had generals who came from the mainland they're claimed by both sides now you know a couple of them became gods actually and there's temples to them in taiwan

And essentially, during the Qing Dynasty, China's final dynasty, they were a region of the province across the strait on the mainland.

Okay.

But the Qing Dynasty's writ didn't really run there.

They were settled by people from the mainland, but it was swampy and pestilential, and there were indigenous people, and it wasn't really...