Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

Swimmers hope their friendly rivalry can be an example for cooperation across the troubled Taiwan Strait.

Kinmen, Taiwan – On Taiwan’s sandy shores, Liu Xi Jiu puts on his goggles as he prepares to race across one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world.

Originally from Beijing, he is competing in the only event of its kind, a seven-kilometre (4.3-mile) swimming race across a geopolitical hotspot, from Taiwan’s offshore Kinmen Islands to the city of Xiamen on China’s east coast.

Around him, 200 athletes from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau laugh and joke as they warm up. In front of them, past the rows of anti-invasion spikes that line Kinmen’s golden beaches, Xiamen’s distinctive skyscrapers glint in the morning sun.

But the warm weather and sense of friendly competition mask the increasingly tense relations across the strait that separates democratic Taiwan from China, which claims the island as its own.

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