Taiwan’s Presidential Election Is Coming. 6 Things to Know.

Taiwan’s hotly anticipated presidential election is weeks away and will decide the fate not just of the island democracy of 24 million people, but of the most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint between China and the U.S. Taiwan is a self-ruled island off the coast of southern China that split from the mainland in 1949. It is a thriving capitalist democracy with a civil liberties rating higher than the U.S., France, and the U.K., according to Freedom House.