Taiwan election: who are the candidates and what is at stake?

In a bumper year of elections, a small archipelago of 24 million people will take part in a presidential vote that will have far-reaching consequences. On 13 January, voters in Taiwan will choose a new president, who will set the tone for relations between the world's two biggest superpowers for the years to come. Although the Chinese Communist party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan, it claims the territory as part of the People's Republic of China, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its long-stated ambition of "reunification". But an increasing proportion of people see themselves…