When protests erupted in Hong Kong in March of 2019, pictures of the city’s streets packed with demonstrators with their faces covered.

When Chiang Kai-shek evacuated the Chinese government to the island of Taiwan on December 7, 1949, he could not believe what was happening.

A year ago, the world looked on with some scepticism at the incessant arrival of Russian troops and weaponry on the Ukrainian border.

Taiwan is an island 36,000 square km in size and lies 200 km from what Taiwan considers the greatest threat to its security: China.