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' SUNDAY TIMES * '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.

The Taiwan Story helps us 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.

'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