As China continues sending balloons over Taiwan, the island faces a difficult choice: do nothing and appear weak, or shoot them down and risk escalation?

The Qing at first showed little interest in the island, but recognised it in 1885 as Taiwan province (a name that came not from China, but from one of the aboriginal tribes).

Two weeks after two Chinese fishermen drowned while being chased by Taiwan’s coast guard, tensions remain high in the waters around Kinmen, a group of outlying islands controlled by Taiwan but ...