China and Taiwan don’t get along - in fact, Xi Jinping has threatened to use force to “reunify” the island with the mainland. But why? To understand, we have to go back more than a century to the events of the Chinese Civil War. This conflict gives us the origin story of the current tensions and explains so much more besides - why China is Communist, why Taiwan isn’t recognised as a country, and why America is allied with Taipei. It may also give us hints at what we can expect in the future.