In January 2023, a leaked memo from the US air force general Mike Minihan revealed that he expected to be at war with China over Taiwan by 2025. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had raised the stakes, as had Beijing’s consistent refusal to rule out military action. But is a full-scale invasion the real threat, or is the territory’s struggle for independence already well under way? On a recent trip to Taiwan, the New Statesman’s China and global affairs editor Katie Stallard visits Kinmen, site of the last major confrontation between Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army and the Kuomintang forces of...