Taiwan is a small island but its massive neighbour China “cares a lot about what happens” in the nation and “Beijing has made it very clear that it brooks no dissent”, according to Sophia Yan, The Telegraph’s China correspondent.

“Renegades like Taiwan must be brought to heel. Issues like this threaten the legitimacy of the ruling Chinese Communist Party,” she added in the video above. “Hong Kong is one very recent example.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned US president Joe Biden that it was “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a video meeting between the two world leaders, which ended with no major breakthrough. 

“Washington maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity, which means that it hasn’t clarified if it would intervene if China invaded Taiwan,” according to Nicola Smith, The Telegraph’s Asia Correspondent.

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