(gentle upbeat music) (audience clapping) (audience responding) (audience clapping) (police siren wailing) (crowd shouting) (audience clapping) - [Tsai] Taiwan is not a big place.

We have a population of 23 million people.

(classical string theme builds) Today we are about the freest country in the region, but China does not want the world to hear our story.

(classical string music theme builds) (lyric violins over sweeping classical strings) This program was made possible in part by Connecting people and companies to America through comprehensive visa and immigration solutions.

♪ (car engine revving) (phone ringing) (airplane engine roaring) - [Clinton] I had reminded everyone that I wanted a peaceful resolution to the differences between China and Taiwan agreed to by people on both sides of the strait.

(distant crowd noises) - Over the last nearly 30 years, we've lived in a fully democratized country.

At the same time, we've also faced the same international experience and that international experience is informed by something as simple, but as symbolic as, when we book a flight and finding that our country is not listed on the pull down menu.

- [Announcer] As Chinese Taipei enters stage.

- [Commentator] Wow, absolutely massive roar.

There's been such a problem over what to call this team.

The Chinese and the Taiwanese can never seem to agree.

- [Reporter] Renowned Taiwan track athlete Chi Cheng known affectionately as the leaping antelope showed off her Olympic medal to prove that the name Taiwan was once used in international sports competitions.

(spectators cheering) (anthemic music) (solemn classical music) (solemn classical music) (horn flourish) - It is hard for other countries to comprehend because Taiwan doesn't function as a normal country in international society.

That is, we are not recognized diplomatically as other countries normally do with each other.

- [Carter] The government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is, but one China and Taiwan is part of China.

- We, the United States recognized PRC as the sole legal government of China, not the legitimate government.

We didn't say that because we didn't think they were, they weren't "elected".

But the statement also says we acknowledge the Chinese position that Taiwan's part of China.

But that's diplomatic language acknowledged, which says, "We hear what you say, we don't necessarily agree with it."

- When President Carter says "We are simply recognizing simple reality."

But the 8 million people in Taiwan should not be ignored.

- [Reporter] Warren Christopher is one of our country's top diplomats now on a very tough mission to Taiwan.

But he didn't realize how tough until he stepped off a plane in Taipei to face a howling mob of 10,000 people.

The mob threw eggs and tomatoes and rocks at the Americans while police stood by and only asked that nothing dangerous would be thrown in the barrage.

- [Reporter] Taiwan's demanding that the United States come to its defense in the event of an invasion by China.

Our country meanwhile insists that from now on contacts between the two countries can only continue on an unofficial non-governmental basis.

(soldiers marching) (crowd cheering) So Chiang Ching-Kuo chose the path of democratic transition.

(crowd cheering) He decided to embark on a process called Taiwanization.

I mean after all, the population was Taiwanese, so he was building up a Taiwanese membership of the Kuomintang, of the military, of the security services.

And in that process he appointed this guy Lee Teng-hui as his vice president because Lee Teng-hui was loyal as Chiang Ching-kuo thought at that time, loyal apparatchik of the regime.

But he was born in Taiwan and spoke Taiwanese, ate Taiwanese food.

So Lee Teng-hui gradually emerges as a pro-Taiwan activist.

(drums sounding) (distant crowd noises) (audience clapping) - [Tsai] In 1986, the DPP was established and that was the first major political party other than the nationalist KMT and was considered the first native political party.

- Cross-strait relations took a big turn in 2008 when I was elected president.

Within two months, Taiwan and Mainland China started the first direct scheduled commercial flights in 60 years.

- [Chris Horton] Under the KMT administration led by Ma Ying-jeou, you had an influx of Chinese influence quite substantial in a very short period of time.

In 2014, you had the Sunflower Movement, was a response to this Trade in Services bill.

The agreement will regulate trade between Taiwan and China.

- If this is a normal country to country situation, that would be okay, but Taiwan is dealing with a neighbor, with a political agenda to annex Taiwan.

- [Chris Horton] This Trade in Services bill had been drafted in China by the KMT and the Chinese government and it was being pushed through without proper legislative review.

- [Tsai] The way they conduct politics is very different from what is required of a democratic society.

So I want to change the political culture and the way people conduct politics.

- Young people were extremely concerned.

(protesters chanting) - [Tsai] The young generation in this country are wonderful.

I think it shows the maturity of the people here that they are not supporting the government without reservation.

(protestors chanting) (crowd cheering) - [Reporter] Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and it's a young one too.

This year, 2016, marks 20 years since Taiwan elected its first president.

(hopeful orchestral music) (crowd chanting) (crowd cheering) (Crowd roars) - [Reporter] A landslide win for Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive party.

(gentle triumphant music) (crowd chanting) - She is photogenic.

So this is casual, but when we get formal, I have to speak things in -- - [Interviewer] Chinese.

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] Did you always dream of becoming president?

- I never dreamed of of being a president.

(cat meows) Initially...oh... guess we have to do that again.

(both laugh) You know, I was a rather shy-- (cat meows again) ...child, so... When I was young I was very shy and didn't want to deal with people, you know, especially talking to people.

I wanted a quiet life.

I thought I would become a historian or archeologist to study things that happened in the past.

People that are dead already and they wouldn't jump up to argue with you.

(light suspenseful music) - [Matt Pottinger] President Tsai, she gave a very impressive speech where she extended an olive branch.

She opened the door to dialogue in ways that Beijing would've jumped at a number of years ago.

- [Shawna Yang Ryan] In 2016, there was a phone call between Tsai Ing-wen and Donald Trump.

'Cause Trump had just been elected and Tsai Ing-wen was calling to congratulate him.

And Trump then clarified on Twitter that she "CALLED ME," all caps and people were really riled up by this phone call because it was the first time there had been contact between leaders of the two countries since 1979.

- [Reporter] His phone call with Taiwan's president touched off something of a weekend diplomatic firestorm.

- China felt that it violated the one China policy.

They called it, what some people have translated as "a little trick" by Taiwan.

- [William Stanton] That after the Tsai Ing-wen phone call to President Trump, he immediately, this 93 year old man flew out to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping to assure him that all would be well.

They sold out Taiwan, which does share our values and our ideals and our interests, geo-strategic and otherwise by a man who never visited Taiwan.

In fact, one point he was asked whether he would go and he said, "Well, I would have to ask my Chinese friends about that."

Which is replayed years later by Trump who asked whether he'd have another phone call says, Well, "I would have to ask my friend Xi Jinping whether I could do that."

So it's sad how little the leadership of the United States over the years has learned.

(city traffic sounds) - [Interviewer] Yeah... (soft dramatic music) (audience clapping) (foreboding music) - [Stein Ringen] We have a history of not fully understanding totalitarian regimes until it's too late.

(audience clapping) - [Reporter] Term limits on the presidency were lifted leading the way for President Xi Jinping to continue as leader indefinitely.

(audience clapping) - The Chinese regime under Xi Jinping has been moving towards totalitarianism.

It's time to sit up to really grasp that there are dangerous developments afoot.

(audience clapping) - [Reporter] Xi Jinping says, "The island's reunification will happen, Beijing reserves the right to use force."

Firing his strongest warning yet.

- [Reporter] The possibility of an attack on Taiwan is real.

(audience clapping) (gentle upbeat music) (bright intense music) - [Hsiao Bi-khim] China is trying to utilize their influence to isolate Taiwan.

- [Reporter] Today, foreign minister Joseph Wu confirmed that China was stepping up its efforts to court Taiwan's diplomatic allies.

- [Joseph Wu] We have 21 diplomatic allies and they speak out on Taiwan's behalf on the international stage.

- [Hsiao Bi-Khim] These diplomatic allies of Taiwan are very important for us and that they imply official recognition of Taiwan, of our government.

The fact that we exist.

- [Reporter] Solomon Islands has broken its diplomatic ties with the government of Taiwan.

- [Reporter] El Salvador has become the third country this year to break off diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

(bright piano music) (wind and ocean sounds) - [Chris Horton] There's a lot of misunderstanding, especially outside of Asia with regard to Taiwan splitting from China, splitting from the mainland.

It's just a historical fact that Taiwan has never been controlled, not for a second by the People's Republic of China.

Over the past 400 years, Taiwan has been colonized by multiple governments.

The earliest colonizers were the Dutch.

They were followed by the Spanish, (piano music buildup) then the Ming Loyalist, Zheng Chenggong, and the Qing Dynasty.

(piano music intensifies) And then Japan controlled Taiwan and ruled it as its first colony from 1895 until 1945.

The only time that you ever had a China-based government that controlled both China and all of Taiwan was from 1945 until 1949 when it lost the Civil War to the Communists.

That four year period was the only time that China and Taiwan have been ruled by the same government at the same time.

- [Andrew Nathan] The Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 by winning a civil war against the Nationalist party or the Kuomintang.

So when the Nationalist party pulled out and went to Taiwan, the US continued to recognize that government and we were containing communist China because it was red and communist and it was allied with the Soviet Union.

- [Gerrit Van Der Wees] From that time on, Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan said, "I'm the real government of all of China."

While at the same time in Beijing you had a government by Mao Zedong who also said, "I'm the real government of all of China."

So you had two competing Chinas.

- [James Lin] Back in 1971, the governments in Beijing is not present in the United Nations and for many countries in the world, this was a very strange kind of fiction because a government representing, you know, around almost a billion people should have representation in the UN.

And that's because that seat was given to the Republic of China, which at that time was only in charge of Taiwan.

(audience clapping) - [Dick Cavett] The United States lost the fight to keep nationalist China in the United Nations, and the Albanian resolution to admit communist China to the UN was passed and Taiwan was sort of booted out.

It was a moment of what's been described as quote, "A shocking demonstration of undisguised glee."

- The United Nations today crossed a very dangerous bridge, and that's the question of expulsion.

In calm reflection I think we're gonna recognize that there's been a very serious mistake.

- [Reporter] The United Nations will convene without a delegation from Taiwan.

- [Reporter] Officials in Taiwan have expressed regret and discontent over being rejected by the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol.

- [Reporter] The island was excluded from an assembly of the International Civil Aviation organization in September.

- [Reporter] Taiwan has been excluded from the Global Health Conference for three years in a row.

- [Reporter] Taiwan's exclusion comes down to only one factor, China.

(somber music) (airplane engine roaring) (crowd clapping) (acoustic string music) - You know, to grow and develop as a democracy, it's important that various minorities are respected.

- [Reporter] Taiwan has become the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

(hopeful piano music) - President Tai hailed the passage of the bill and said, "It was a proud day for Taiwan."

(crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) - [Hsaio Bi-kihm] I initiated the legislation 10 years ago.

The first time around it was just thrown out.

We didn't even have a chance to debate it on the floor.

So I think we have come a long way.

- [Hsaio Bi'khim] Most of the people in Taiwan are also in favor of peace and that's the ultimate goal.

But we want peace where the people of Taiwan can also pursue their aspirations in a free environment.

(gentle wind blowing) (helicopters roaring) (tank engine revving) (cars' engines revving) - [Reporter] President Tsai Ing-wen today oversaw a huge display of Taiwan's military might.

(missiles firing) - [Reporter] Her move is widely seen as a response to the frequent military exercises China has been conducting in the region.

(helicopter propellers roaring) (canons firing) (tense music) (tanks firing) (helicopter propellers roaring) (tense music) (helicopter roaring) - [Bonnie Glaser] Since 1995, 96, where China was firing missiles at Taiwan.

The PLA recognized that it had a lot of conventional missiles that were not very accurate, that could destroy Taiwan, but they really could not get a large number of people across the strait set up a beachhead, establish air superiority and take hold of the island.

And the PLA has been focused like a laser on that mission ever since.

- Its military budget is about 20 times the size of Taiwan's.

- [William Stanton] Though they don't talk about this publicly, one of the reasons China wants to take over Taiwan is because it's a military outpost.

They can put troops here, they can put ships here and extend their reach in the Pacific.

The geography matters.

It's not just a small island, it is the anchor point in the first island chain.

And right now, that island chain is governed by democracies, and so Beijing doesn't like that.

And the worldview is a deeply ideological one, and it believes that the Chinese communist party's power will only be secure when none of its neighbors are democratic.

(pensive music) - [Reporter] Tsai leaves next Friday for a nine day trip.

(pensive music builds) - [Announcer] President Tsai Ing-wen - [Attendee] President Tsai.

- [Reporter] Her stopover in the US was the longest yet by Taiwanese president.

(gentle upbeat music) - You know, I think you'll see the rest of the world stand up and I think in particular, if there's a military invasion, I think that would be met with a swift and strong response.

- [Reporter] She called on the audiences to support Taiwan in the face of Chinese oppression.

(music builds) (bright upbeat music) (horn flourishes) (footsteps walking) - [Hsiao Bi-khim] When the KMT regime came to Taiwan and took over the colonial government, they wiped out a generation of Taiwanese political leaders.

The doctors, the teachers, the intellectuals of our society were either murdered or disappeared.

(brooding piano music) (pensive piano music) (light piano cascade) - [Reporter] Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong are gathered outside the city's police headquarters.

They want the government to completely scrap a bill that would make anyone in Hong Kong subject to extradition to mainland China.

- [Reporter] And to take a look at these live images right now there in Hong Kong, 2:18 in the afternoon there, that bill sparked protests by millions of people.

(crowd chanting) - [woman's amplified voice] The young have every right to express their feelings, their anger, their frustration, their resentment in any way they want because this is their Hong Kong, their future.

(soldiers running) (distant crowd noises) (glass breaking) - [Reporter] She's now leading the polls by nearly 20 percentage points.

- [Reporter] President Tsai Ing-wen may emerge as the biggest winner from the ongoing unrest in Hong Kong.

(music flourish) [News Anchor] Cases are climbing and even more restrictive lockdowns are looming as the virus imposes a renewed threat on the island.

Taiwan saw zero reported infections for 253 straight days last year, between April and December.

In total there's only been 14 confirmed Covid-19 deaths.

(suspenseful music) (computer beeping) - [Interviewer] Are you in principle at least, in favor of the idea of formal Taiwanese independence?

- The idea is this, we don't have a need to declare ourselves an independent state, we are an independent country.

(crowd clapping) - [Matt Pottinger] If you look carefully at the way that Xi Jinping's propaganda about Taiwan has changed over the years, it's gone from a threat to use force in order to prevent or deter Taiwan from declaring independence, to now threatening the use of force if Taiwan does not actively move towards unification.

That's a complete changing of the game.

He wants to change the status quo in ways that would be profoundly terrible for Taiwan, but also for the world.

(crowd clapping and cheering) - If Xi Jinping wants to do it and goes at it with the same measure of totalism as Putin, he'll take Taiwan, and he'll kill hundreds of thousands of people in the process.

- [Reporter] Russia and China enjoy a friendship with no limits.

This announcement made by the Russian and Chinese presidents when they met on February 4th on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

(fireworks bursting) 20 days later, soon after the end of the Olympics, Moscow invaded Ukraine.

(missile blasting) - [Hsiao Bi-khim] The atrocities of war and the suffering is deeply touching many Taiwanese people.

The commonality of being next to a very aggressive state that threatens to use force, is something that stands out in this current global crisis.

- [William A. Stanton] So now the two closest partners and allies in the world arguably, are China and Russia.

It doesn't mean they like one another or totally trust one another, but their geo-strategic interests are totally in alignment.

- [Audrey Tang] They want to amplify the narrative that says, "Democracy lead to chaos."

"Democracy lead to polarization, democracy lead to people hating each other, and only authoritarian societies are the most harmonious."

That is the main narrative.

(waves splashing) (tense music) - [Hsaio Bi'khim] Everything we are doing right now is to deter any military action.

The kind of atrocities that are happening in Ukraine now from being repeated in Taiwan.

(indistinct conversations) (sweeping classical string music) - [Biden] They're already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers that they are undertaking.

And my expectation is a lot of it depends upon just how strongly the world makes clear that that kind of action is gonna result in long-term disapprobation by the rest of the community.

- [Reporter] Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?

- Yes.

- You are?

- That's the commitment we made.

(distant crowd noises) (air plane engine roaring) (crowd cheering) (bright upbeat music) - [Reporter] House speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan at this hour blatantly defying threats from China.

Speaker Pelosi and her delegation were greeted on the tarmac moments after landing in the Capital.

She's the first house speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, her arrival could further strain relations between the US and China.

(crowd chanting) (bright upbeat music) - [Reporter] In a statement, Pelosi defending her visit saying it honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy.

(pensive music) (chanting in the background) (audience clapping) (bell sounding) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) (hopeful string music) (horn flourish) (hopeful string music) (horn flourish) Connecting people and companies to America through comprehensive visa and immigration solutions.

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