Taiwan is one of the hottest spots on the planet: an unprecedented geopolitical clash is taking place around the “other China” which could affect the future of the world. Much has changed from the time of Chiang Kai-shek to today. The island is no longer an “unsinkable democratic aircraft carrier”, a close ally of America in opposition to communist China. Indeed, the latter is preparing to take possession of it and is already planning a 160 kilometer bridge between the two edges of the China Sea. How will the island react to an invasion? Will long-term resistance be created? What will happen in the Indo-Pacific Basin – between India, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia – and how would the world change with the United States out of the area? What would happen to the production of chips and the trade of containers that sail the waters of those seas between brave captains, fishermen and pirates? With the conquest of Taipei, Beijing could extend its power over the entire central Eurasia. With concrete and direct consequences also for Europe, already dealing with the conflict in Ukraine, and even for the Vatican and the future of the Catholic Church. Danilo Taino digs with passion into the fascinating history of this part of the world, from the colonial past to the eternal challenge between China and Japan, from corrupt regimes to new trade wars, tracing a formidable fresco of the international scene and its protagonists and raising the alarm about a new possible world conflict.
