China regards the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province; Taiwan’s leaders say it is an independent state. As China rises to superpower status, it has shown greater interest in reclaiming territory long regarded as its own, in the South China Sea, along the Himalayan border – and in Taiwan. The growing tensions could drag the US into the fray. To discuss the implications for security, peace and the people of Taiwan, we have three distinguished experts: Prof Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute; Susan Thornton, a retired senior US diplomat and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Dr Chun-Yi Lee, director of the Taiwan Studies programme at the University of Nottingham.