In a succession of threatening manoeuvres Chinese missiles have been tested & troops put on alert. And the Taiwanese are feeling distinctly vulnerable. Panic gripped the nation when a power cut was mistaken for a Chinese invasion. Officials are incredulous at China's fighting talk. "Beijing has no claim to our sovereignty... how can they say that we are their subjects?" But with 40,000 Taiwanese factories on the mainland, nobody is denying that the territories need each other. They have a shared culture, ethnicity and language, but not a shared ideology. "We are not ready for unification... as long as the mainland continues to be ruled by a Communist Party!" Is it just another chapter in the stand off between the two Chinas or is Beijing now intent on proving it's Asia's superpower, whatever the price?

Produced by ABC Australia