By David Schlesinger
China’s air force is again flying encirclement runs around Taiwan, giving stark evidence that the issues of the island and its sovereignty, autonomy or independence could easily become a serious world flash point – particularly as the U.S. administration of Donald Trump seems to want to play a “Taiwan card” to tweak China’s dragon tail.
Here are some questions to consider:
- What is a nation? In your mind, at what point do geography, history, ethnicity, size and power come together to say a place is a separate nation?
- Taiwan has 23 million people; China has 1.4 billion. Taiwan is the world’s 22nd biggest economy; China is the 2nd. Does size matter in making diplomatic decisions? Should it?
- What should the U.S. role in Asia be? What if China started playing more of a role in, say, the Pacific coast off Latin America? Do you see that as the same or different?
Below is the recording of an interview that I gave to Monocle radio on this topic.
