Taiwan's Kinmen Island lives life 'as usual' despite Chinese drills
By Sarah LAI
Kinmen, Taiwan (AFP) May 24, 2024

After a night at sea, fishers unloaded their haul on a port in Kinmen on Friday, saying there was "no real impact" from war games that Chinese forces were running around self-ruled Taiwan.

Sleepy, historic Kinmen was among a series of Taipei-administered islands where Beijing was carrying out military exercises.

Fisherman Chen Chien-chou, 32, who had worked through the night under rainy conditions at sea, said things were "the same as usual" around Kinmen.

"There is no real impact (from the drills), it makes no difference to the people," he said, as port workers stuffed dozens of small sharks into boxes destined for markets.

"They are targeting the main island, not outlying islands, which already have close interactions with them," Chen said.

The two-day drills, codenamed Joint Sword-2024A, were launched days after Taiwan swore in President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing describes as a "dangerous separatist".

But China's escalating campaign of intimidation has meant that residents in Kinmen are "not taking things to heart", said Wu Wei-kuo, 40, who runs a guesthouse out of a historic mansion.

"I can't put my life on hold for something I have no control over," he said.

Taipei-administered Kinmen is only five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese mainland, compared to 200 kilometres from Taiwan's main island.

It is also a military training base -- armoured trucks were spotted rolling through its streets Friday as Taiwanese soldiers conducted routine exercises.

A front line island after the nationalists fled China to Taiwan in 1949, Kinmen today has remnants of its battlefield history, like fortifications on its beaches and bunkers on the streets.

More than 70 years later, China's communist leaders still vow to seize democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory.

The island may sit at China's door, but guesthouse operator Wu said "the name of my country is Taiwan". He, like many others on the self-ruled island, identifies as Taiwanese, distinct from Chinese.

"If, unfortunately, a war breaks out... if there is a need for me to go to the battlefield, I will go," he told AFP.

- 'Not worried' -

Since 2016, when Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party -- which champions the island's sovereignty -- came into power, China has severed all high-level communications.

It sends warplanes, naval vessels and drones around Taiwan, and in recent months -- particularly for the outlying islands -- there have been frequent appearances of Chinese coast guard ships.

But "they wouldn't do anything to our fishing boats," said another fisherman surnamed Chen, who declined to provide his full name.

"They just sailed by us and took a look... We are not worried."

Lin Rong-bin, a school janitor residing in Kinmen's smaller islet of Lieyu, reckoned he knew exactly the phrase in Lai's inaugural speech on Monday that drew China's wrath.

Lai delivered an oft-repeated party line, saying that the Republic of China -- Taiwan's official name -- and the People's Republic of China "are not subordinate to each other".

"That's like saying there are two countries," the 44-year-old janitor said.

Beijing denounced the speech as a "confession of independence".

Still, Lin said life in Kinmen remains "business as usual".

"If something really serious is happening, the ferries (between Kinmin and Xiamen) will be shut down."

At China's window to Taiwan, unification is only a matter of time
Pingtan, China (AFP) May 24, 2024 - Chinese tourists clamber over rocks to gaze at the misty horizon that holds Taiwan, the island that Beijing insists will not be self-ruled for very much longer.

Taiwan's new president Lai Ching-te has vowed to safeguard the island's democracy, enraging Beijing, which has launched military drills and warned of war if Taipei persists in provoking it.

On Pingtan -- a Chinese island that is the closest point to Taiwan's main island -- visitors told AFP they saw the separation as only a temporary arrangement.

"We share common roots," Chen Yan, a 60-year-old woman from Wuhan in central China, said of Taiwan.

"There will definitely be unification," Chen said, adding that she hoped to visit Taiwan.

"Whether it's our mainland government or the Taiwan government, we all hope for peaceful unification as a common aspiration," she stressed.

But, Chen said, China could not "rule out that in the grand scheme of things, we could be forced to (achieve unification) in other ways."

Nearby, tourists posed for pictures in front of a sign proclaiming "the closest distance between the motherland and Taiwan island" -- a span of just 68 nautical miles (126 kilometres).

Next to one telescope, a 29-year-old tourist surnamed Xu told AFP he did not recognise Lai as the legitimate leader of Taiwan.

"At most, the president of Taiwan is a temporary leader for the region," said Xu.

"Taiwan is definitely a part of the mainland and a part of China," he added, insisting Lai "cannot be called a president."

A solemn military compound sits on a hill nearby, where bugle calls emanating from within could be heard at the park's entrance.

Propaganda signs on the side of the compound order passersby to "follow the (Communist) Party's command", and "be capable of winning battles".

Another sign showed a quote from Chinese President Xi Jinping: "The motherland must be unified, and will inevitably be unified".

- 'It will return one day soon' -

Beijing's propaganda apparatus has gone into overdrive as the drills thunder on, with a top government spokesman threatening on Thursday that the blood of "separatists" would flow.

But two hundred miles southeast, in the city of Xiamen, signs of the military drills taking place in and around the strait were scant.

Dreary rain fell as tourists milled about on the sand under umbrellas, posing for pictures in front of the seascape and haggling for jewellery with vendors.

"I saw the news about the drills when I woke up this morning," said a 43-year-old woman surnamed Liu from Sichuan Province on a multi-day group tour of the area.

"But I don't pay much attention to national matters like that," said Liu, hurrying off to snap a picture with a lighthouse that pointed out towards Taiwan's Kinmen islands just kilometres away.

Behind the beach, a message emblazoned with eight five-storey-tall red characters proclaimed: "One country, two systems; unify China".

Back in Pingtan, a 24-year-old tourist surnamed Jiang said the day of unification was near.

"Taiwan independence isn't desirable -- it will return one day and that day is soon," Jiang told AFP.

"The treasure island Taiwan has been the land and territory of our China since ancient times," he said.

"We need to let them know that we have strength. Not scared of them, but rather we want to use peaceful means to let Taiwan return to China."

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