Beijing has termed the three-day drills a "stern warning" to Taiwan over President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, but the show of force is part of life for residents of Taipei.
"Of course I am a bit afraid," said Hong Xiang-yu, a 23-year-old university student, after dance practice in the popular public square in central Taipei.
"Look, we are at Liberty Square. I hope to stay free, to do whatever I wish and say whatever I want to say."
The imposing square, flanked by Taipei's grand National Theater and National Concert Hall buildings, has become a site for social gatherings as well as rallies and protests.
Residents regularly gather there and school bands and dance troupes are a common sight.
Students from a high school ceremonial honour guard twirled imitation rifles on Saturday outside a massive memorial for former Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek.
"I think many Taiwanese have gotten used to it by now, the feeling is like, here we go again!" said 16-year-old Jim Tsai.
Chiang, who set up a rival government in Taiwan after his Kuomintang troops lost a civil war to Chinese communists in 1949, is a divisive figure on the island.
Many youths see Chiang as synonymous with the kind of authoritarianism now seen in China, which views Taiwan as part of its own territory.
The former leader oversaw a brutal military regime that exiled, imprisoned and killed thousands of opponents until his death in 1975.
Liberty Square has become a symbol of the everyday practice of social freedom and a reminder of what Taiwan has overcome.
While people there appeared to have grown accustomed to Chinese aggression, they still hold faith that Taiwan will remain free.
"We are concerned, but we need to move on. I believe our government will not let us down," Hong said.
Taiwan's flag fluttered in the breeze behind the massive Chinese arches that stand at the square's entrance.
"They (China) seem to like doing it, circling Taiwan like it's theirs. I am used to it now," said Michael Chuang, a 32-year-old construction worker.
He, like many others, remained pragmatic.
"If they invade we can't escape anyway. We'll see what the future holds and go from there," Chuang said.
Chinese seaside tourists brush off military drills over Taiwan
Pingtan, China (AFP) April 8, 2023 -
Chinese tourists on an island near Taiwan sunned themselves and snapped seaside selfies on Saturday, unaware -- or at least unbothered -- by Beijing's launch of major military drills in the strait beyond.
Brandishing colourful flags and shouting through microphones, tour guides corralled throngs of day-trippers along the coast of Pingtan, a scenic isle that is the closest point on the mainland to Taiwan, the democratic island China claims as its own.
Beijing announced three days of military drills around Taiwan starting Saturday morning, indicating they were retaliation for Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen's recent visit to the United States.
But reactions on Pingtan were muted, with the sounds of the strong breeze and rolling ocean pierced only by holidaymakers' excited chatter and the whistles of guards warding off those who strayed too close to the rocky shore.
"I saw the news, but it's not going to stop our plans for today," said Wu, a visitor of about 30 years old who was strolling the coastal path with his partner.
"Relations with Taiwan aren't great at the moment, but they're stable. We hope for peaceful reunification," he told AFP.
Others said they had not heard about the drills or shrugged off their importance.
"What situation? There's nothing going on," a woman in her 20s said, walking off without giving her name.
AFP did not see any military vessels transiting the waters off Pingtan on Saturday morning, though a tugboat and several army helicopters were spotted on Friday afternoon and evening.
A handful of cargo boats cruised through the waters about a kilometre offshore, while tourists in sunglasses and baseball caps crowded around art installations themed around the island's proximity to Taiwan.
The drills "are just a few preventive measures being taken by the government", said Lin, a man of around 50, adding he hoped China and Taiwan would unify one day.
"As an average person, I just hope that the mainland does well, and Taiwan does well too," he told AFP. "We're one big family."
The Taiwan Strait -- a history of crises
Taipei (AFP) April 8, 2023 -
Ever since Communist China and Taiwan broke away from each other at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the waterway separating them has been a geopolitical flashpoint.
The Taiwan Strait, just 130 kilometres (80 miles) wide at its narrowest point, is a major international shipping channel and all that lies between democratic, self-ruled Taiwan and its giant authoritarian neighbour.
On Saturday, Beijing began three days of military drills in response to this week's visit by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States, where she met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
China described the drills as "a stern warning" to "separatist forces" that want to bring about Taiwan's independence by colluding with foreign powers.
Following a visit to Taiwan last August by McCarthy's predecessor Nancy Pelosi, China unleashed its largest-ever military exercises around the island. Analysts had initially said that Tsai meeting McCarthy in the US may placate Beijing and avert a military show of strength.
Historians pinpoint three moments before Pelosi's visit when tensions within the Taiwan Strait boiled over into crisis.
- First Taiwan Strait Crisis -
Mao Zedong's communist forces successfully pushed out Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, who relocated to Taiwan, at the end of the Chinese Civil War.
The two rivals -- the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan -- stood on either side of the strait .
The First Taiwan Strait Crisis broke out in August 1954 when the Nationalists placed thousands of troops on Taiwan-ruled Kinmen and Matsu, two small islands just a few miles from the mainland.
Communist China responded with artillery bombardments of the islands and the successful capture of the Yijiangshan Islands, about 400 kilometres north of Taipei.
The crisis was eventually defused but brought China and the United States to the brink of direct conflict.
- Second Taiwan Strait Crisis -
Fighting broke out again in 1958 as Mao's forces conducted an intense bombardment of Kinmen and Matsu in another bid to dislodge Nationalist troops.
Concerned that the loss of the islands might lead to the collapse of the Nationalists and Beijing's eventual takeover of Taiwan, US President Dwight D Eisenhower ordered his military to escort and resupply their Taiwanese allies.
The United States at one point even briefly considered deploying nuclear weapons against China.
Unable to take the offshore islands or bombard the Nationalists into submission, Beijing announced a ceasefire.
Mao's forces would still intermittently shell Kinmen up to 1979, but an otherwise tense stalemate set in.
- Third Taiwan Strait Crisis -
It would be another 37 years before the next crisis.
In the intervening decades, China and Taiwan both changed considerably.
China remained Communist Party-controlled following Mao's death but began a period of reform and opening up to the world.
Taiwan began shaking off Chiang's authoritarian years and evolved into a progressive democracy, with many embracing a distinctly Taiwanese -- not Chinese -- identity.
Tensions exploded again in 1995 when China began test-firing missiles in the waters around Taiwan to protest against a visit by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to his alma mater university in the United States.
Beijing loathed Lee because he favoured Taiwan declaring itself an independent state.
Further missile tests were carried out a year later as Taiwan held its first direct presidential election.
The display backfired.
The United States sent two aircraft carrier groups to push China into backing down and Lee won the election by a large margin.
A year later, Newt Gingrich became the first US House speaker to visit Taiwan.
- Largest-ever exercises -
It took over 25 years before the next House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, went to Taiwan.
China responded by unleashing its largest-ever air and sea exercises, sending warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around the island.
Taipei condemned the drills and missile tests as preparation for an invasion.
Less than a year later, Tsai arrived in Los Angeles to meet McCarthy, setting off another round of Chinese military exercises.
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