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CARL AZUZ: Will a war of words between China and Taiwan
escalate into something worse?
I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to the show where geopolitics factor
into today's first story.
China's government calls Taiwan the quote," treasure Island
of the motherland and insists Taiwan is a part of China,
meaning it would be subject to the control of China's
communist government.
But Taiwan has its own form of government, a democracy,
and it insists that nobody can force
it to accept the path that Mainland
China has laid out for it.
This dispute between the two sides is nothing new.
It's been going on since the 1940s
when China's Communist Party won a civil war
and forced the nation's previous government to flee to Taiwan.
Today China sees the island as a breakaway province
that needs to be politically reunited with the Mainland.
Taiwan's government disagrees with that
and says it'll do all it can to keep
things as they are with its own democratic government in place.
The back and forth statements between the two sides
have contributed to what Taiwan calls their most
complex situation in 72 years.
And another element at work here is that Taiwan has the support
of the United States.
America is looking for ways to keep
Mainland China from becoming too dominant
in the Asia-Pacific region.
So while only 100 miles of sea water
separate China and Taiwan, what happens between them
could have an impact an ocean away.
WILL RIPLEY: Taiwan's growing arsenal
on full display at this weekend's National Day Parade.
To defend against a growing threat from China,
this small island is spending big on weapons,
many made in the USA.
F-16 fighters, Patriot missiles, $5 billion in US weapons
sold to Taiwan last year.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: Taiwan arms sales skyrocketed
during the Trump years.
The former president's hard line stance
against China, one of the few Trump era policies
embraced by President Joe Biden.
Defending Taiwan's democracy against authoritarian China
has rare bipartisan support.
Some worry Washington politics may be provoking
Beijing, even pushing Taiwan and the US
into dangerous territory.
- If you do take steps to look like you are aggressively
defending Taiwan, then you arguably put them
in a more vulnerable position.
You arguably, again, irritate China.
Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen,
says the island is on the front lines of a much bigger battle.
TSAI ING-WEN: Free and democratic countries
have been alerted to the expansion of authoritarianism
and Taiwan is on the forefront of the defense
line of fellow democracies.
WILL RIPLEY: China sent a record 150 warplanes near Taiwan
in just five days this month.
Biden's balancing act, calming cross-strait tensions,
defending democracy, and preventing a conflict
that could cost American lives.
JOE BIDEN: I've spoken with Xi about Taiwan.
- I think Taiwan really presents a challenge
to any American presidential administration
because you're trying to balance competing interests.
WILL RIPLEY: This is an extraordinary sight.
Four kinds of domestically produced missiles rolling
through the capital in front of Taiwan's
presidential palace, an ominous sign of escalating
regional tensions.
- [non-english]
INTERPRETER: We cannot control whether
or not the Chinese Communist Party has
the ability to attack Taiwan.
But we are able to control and make sure it does not
have the motivation to do so.
WILL RIPLEY: Every Chinese leader since Mao has vowed
to take control of Taiwan.
Analysts say President Xi Jinping
may be the first with a military mighty enough to do it,
even as he calls for peaceful reunification.
- [non-english]
INTERPRETER: Whoever wins Taiwan wins the world.
WILL RIPLEY: China is locked in territorial disputes
across the Indo-Pacific region.
Taiwan, Beijing's biggest unresolved issue and some
say Biden's biggest test.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
CARL AZUZ: 10 second trivia.
What is the largest low-cost airline carrier in the world?
Ryanair, Southwest, JetBlue, or Spirit.
With more than 730 planes and 54,000 employees,
Southwest holds this title.
Mystery and speculation surround thousands of recent flight
cancellations by Southwest.
The mystery is that Southwest's explanation has been partly
denied by the Federal Aviation Administration
and the speculation is based on timing.
The cancellations started shortly after the company said
its employees would have to get a COVID vaccine as required
by the US government.
Some travel industry experts and lawmakers
have suggested the delays might have
been caused by a pilot walkout.
Southwest denies that.
But whatever caused the cancellations
some passengers have said they don't think they're
being told the whole truth.
PETE MUNTEAN: This is a really big operational mess
for Southwest Airlines.
It is not like turning off a switch
and turning it back on again.
It's more akin to unplugging something and plugging it back
in again, because Southwest says all of these problems
really started back on Friday.
It pins the blame here on air traffic
control and weather issues.
But what's so interesting here is that the Federal Aviation
Administration put out a rare statement saying that those
were not problems on Saturday and Sunday
when Southwest experienced the lion's
share of its cancellations.
800 flight cancellations on Saturday,
more than 1,100 flight cancellations on Sunday,
30% of Southwest total schedule for the day.
We've seen about 300 cancelations so far today.
So this is not over just yet.
But in a memo to employees, Southwest really
describes a ripple effect of problems here
that left people and planes out of position.
In fact, some flight crews didn't even have hotel rooms.
That meant thousands of passengers
were stranded by this mess.
And the airline is a lot smaller than what
it was before the pandemic.
The airline describes that in a memo to employees
and it says that made things worse.
It has trimmed down its fall schedule, more people being
packed into fewer airplanes.
One more important thing to note here
is that the pilots from Southwest
say this is not on them.
They are trying to debunk rumors that were flying around online
over the weekend that they may have walked off of the job,
protesting the airlines recently announced
vaccine mandate for workers.
Pilots, they say in a union statement,
that they had no official or unofficial job
actions over the weekend and they're
really pinning the blame here on mismanagement
by Southwest Airlines.
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CARL AZUZ: It makes sense that there would
be a festive title for an event that
includes 600 hot air balloons.
Pilots from around the world and more than 860,000 people
in attendance over 9 days.
That title is Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
And Jeanne Moos takes us up, up and away
at its most popular event which has
been flying high since 1989.
JEANNE MOOS: Humpty Dumpty didn't have a great fall.
He had a great flight upside down
over Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It was the Special Shapes Rodeo at the Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta, where
an armadillo is named Airmadillo and time really does fly.
Every which way you turn, there are balloons.
- You need to have a 360 set of eyes in your head today.
JEANNE MOOS: Special Shapes Day feels a little like the Macy's
Thanksgiving Parade if all the handlers just
let their balloons take off.
The Fiesta announcers have to keep their lions
and their unicorns straight.
- There's one of the new unicorns.
Is that a new pig shape?
- Spidey Pig and Pigasus.
JEANNE MOOS: Special Shapes Day starts
before dawn with the firing up of the balloons
they call glow up.
- And the sunrise is just killing it, just killing it.
JEANNE MOOS: But you can't start the Special Shapes Rodeo
without the national anthem.
- (SINGING) Oh say can you see.
JEANNE MOOS: Oh, you can see, all right.
Motorists can see-- one of the few times out of the year
when slow traffic isn't a bad thing.
And with all those special shapes lurking--
[dog barking] dogs barked and someone tweeted,
felt like something was watching me.
From jokers and jesters to a sloth on a stick--
- It is just the cutest darn thing.
JEANNE MOOS: Everyone had their favorite.
Even the sun wore shades.
As for the balloon of the day, it was Arabelle who
got the honor of first to fly.
- (SINGING) O'er the land of the free.
JEANNE MOOS: And the home of the flying cow.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
CARL AZUZ: So you could see why folks are all pumped up, gassed
up, fired up, inflated like untethered basket cases who are
floating on air with their heads in the clouds,
airing out their appreciation with their eye
on the sky and nothing to troposphere.
From the air, we're going down to the valley
to visit Valley High School.
Shout out to our viewers in Las Vegas,
Nevada who subscribed and left a comment on our YouTube channel.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
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