‘We are Chinese’: meet the Taiwanese who want to embrace Beijing rule

Beachgoers this month in Xiamen, China, just across the waters from Taiwan's Kinmen islands, a potential flashpoint in the conflict with Beijing. Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

At a Cantonese restaurant in Taipei, Harry Chen and four old friends are shouting at each other over a Lazy Susan, stopping occasionally to toast each other with Scottish whiskey or translate their argument into English.

All are retired men in their 70s – the sons of Chinese nationalist soldiers – and were born or grew up in Taiwan during its brutal decades of martial law.