TAIWAN'S new president wasted no time in showing his concern for the island's frontline. Barely 24 hours after his inauguration last weekend, Chen Shui-bian flew in last Sunday to inspect troops on the fortified outpost of Quemoy, the island which lies just off the coast of China's Fujian province. He sought to calm nerves with reassurances that there was no imminent threat of war, coupled with a reiteration of his pledge to open small-scale direct links in the three fields of direct trade, transport and communication. However, the islanders weren't at all impressed by his visit. In fact, many made little secret of their dislike for the new president. Quemoy natives overwhelmingly support the Kuomintang, whom Mr Chen defeated in the March 18 poll. Just 700 islanders voted for Chen, while 80 per cent of the Quemoy electorate opted for former KMT stalwart turned independent candidate James Soong Chu-yu, who was widely considered the most friendly of the mainstream contenders towards Beijing. Quemoy, known to Chinese as Kinmen, lies 10 kilometres off the coast of China and is 280km west of Taiwan. The Guningtou sentry at the northwestern tip of the island is only 1.8km away from the coast of Fujian, making Quemoy the closest of Taiwan's offshore islands to the mainland. 'Taiwan becoming independent? There's no such thing,' scoffed Feng Chuanxiong, a 73-year-old war veteran from China's Hunan province, now living in Quemoy. 'If Taiwan wants to be independent, the communist crooks will attack us.' Quemoy native Wu Tseng-dong feels the same. He is leading a stable life, having inherited a thriving knife-making business from his father. Between 1949 and 1958, the Chinese communists attacked Quemoy - Taiwan's military stronghold - five times, leaving over a million spent shells on the island. Mr Wu's father began experimenting with melted metal shells, forging them into meat cleavers. He began systematically buying shells on the island and founded the Chin Ho-li knife shop in 1963. Now his son has an almost inexhaustible source of raw material. Up to 60 butcher knives can be made from one cannon shell. The pile of cannon shells in Mr Wu's knife workshop testifies to Quemoy's history, which is linked almost entirely to fighting. It also sums up the contradictions between Taiwan and China's hostility and engagement. Quemoy's mayor, Chen Shui-tsai, said: 'We are very used to war, peace is unfamiliar to us. Politically we have more affinity to Taiwan's democratic system than China's authoritarian system. But our economy is linked to China and we want more co-operation with Fujian. Our fate is in the hands of the two leaders on either side of the Strait.' The fortress island has a population of 50,000 civilians who mix with 20,000 military personnel in their everyday life. Civilian rule was only restored in 1992 and the island was first opened to Taiwanese tourists in 1994. Among the military presence on the island is an elite unit of frogmen, who patrol the Quemoy coastline and conduct reconnaissance exercises to collect intelligence from the mainland. This amphibious unit also carries out civilian duties, such as rescuing survivors from shipwrecks. Training exercises were conducted on a beach looking out towards the Fujian coast the day after Mr Chen's visit. The island has a maze of bombproof underground arsenals and shelters served by a tunnel 4km long. Quemoy and a neighbouring island, Matsu, are considered a line of defence against a communist incursion and are strongly fortified. Before 1949, Quemoy thrived on trade with Xiamen. People in Quemoy share similar languages and customs with Taiwan's Fukien people. Yet, in terms of historical background and national identity, there are greater similarities between Quemoy and mainland China. In the 1930s, industry on Quemoy was under-developed and the people made a living by fishing, manufacturing salt and growing the sorghum that produces one of the China's best liquors. All the daily necessities had to be shipped from China. Even now, mainland fishing boats are a common sight off Quemoy. During festivals, especially Lunar New Year, mainlanders sneak in food, such as spices and dried fruits, and leave them on the beach of the island. Their Quemoy relatives then go and pick them up. 'We see the mainlanders all the time,' said Sergeant Hai Guang-she. 'We are too lazy to catch them. Sometimes we flash our lights on them and they drop their catch.' The most imminent wish of Quemoy islanders is to revive commercial links with the mainland. Both sides are building hotels and expanding piers and harbours to accommodate the increasing business flow expected once direct links are established. When there is such a sea link, islanders wishing to visit nearby Fujian province will no longer have to fly via Taipei and Macau, which offers the only quasi-direct links to the mainland. Instead, it would take them just 20 minutes to sail there by boat. 'Though Chen Shui-bian is our president, we Kinmen natives are against independence because it will only bring disaster,' said Xu Shao-qun - a 68-year-old retired photo-journalist who voted for Mr Soong. 'But that doesn't mean we want to re-unify with the mainland. Until China becomes more democratic, we still want to keep our distance.' Clothing store owner Xu Bao-hua, who recalled being scared by the air-raid sirens when she was a child, feels the same: 'We have to see how Chen Shui-bian performs. We want peace.' War weary Li Chang-hai remembered the fierce fighting between communist and KMT forces when Chiang Kai-shek withdrew from China in 1949. The battle took place in Guningtou. He was only 12 and he had to haul wounded soldiers to safety. 'I was very afraid at that time. I ran away from my home to another village. When I returned home, all the cows and chickens had been slaughtered. Gold jewellery was stolen.' The next major battle, which took place on August 23, 1958, lasted 44 days. China lobbed 479,554 shells on Quemoy, which Beijing regards as its sovereign territory. 'Almost all homes were wrecked. At that time I was manufacturing oyster sauce but I had to stop because it was too dangerous to go out. I had to subsist on yams,' Mr Li said. After six weeks of relentlessly shelling Quemoy, China and Taiwan took turns bombarding each other on alternate days. 'Whenever the shelling stopped, I quickly went up to the mountain to pick yams. And when it recurred, I hid in the bomb shelter,' Mr Li said. 'It was a terrible time.' Instead of firing explosives, China fired metal canisters containing propaganda pamphlets that asked the islanders to re-unify with China. Quemoy, in turn, floated balloons carrying messages of freedom and democracy. Mainlanders would broadcast through gigantic loud speakers across the Strait saying they were living very well in China. Quemoy islanders blasted back that they were rich and free. The propaganda war continued into the 1990s. 'There is no urgent need to re-unify with China. We hope to maintain our standard of living, which is the best now. Mainlanders still have to catch up,' said Mr Li, who owns a car and two motorcycles. 'What our president said in his speech was very good. He means well. But if he calls for independence, then I don't support him. I may have no rice to eat and have to live on yams again.' Vivian Chiu ( vchiu@scmp.com ) is a staff writer for the Post's Features desk Graphic: kin28gfa
