Unfazed by PLA drills, Taiwanese tourists flock to tiny Quemoy

A former battleground, the Islets are just 3.2km from mainland China’s coast and have become a popular destination

Visitors peer out of observation posts, walk by murals denouncing Beijing and take pictures of the mainland

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A tourist has her photo taken next to a mural of late Taiwanese president Chiang Kai-shek in Quemoy last week. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:02pm, 16 Aug 2022

Visiting Taiwan’s tiny Quemoy Islands last week, Joseph Lin practised standing up on his paddleboard, drifting across from the mainland Chinese city of Xiamen, where days earlier fighter jets had screamed overhead.

The Taiwanese islets – also known as Kinmen and just 3.2km (2 miles) from mainland China’s coast – have become a popular tourist destination, and Beijing’s massive military drills this month failed to deter domestic visitors from jetting closer to their sabre-rattling neighbour.

Lin, a former soldier from southern Taiwan’s Pingtung county, refused to cancel his three-day trip, saying he believed Beijing was only trying to appease nationalist sentiment at home with its show of force.

“I think Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has sent a warning to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping that it would not be so easy to seize Taiwan,” the 35-year-old said after his paddle under the beating summer sun.

“The price would be too high.”

Joseph Lin paddles in waters off Quemoy, with the mainland Chinese city of Xiamen in the background. Photo: AFP

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are at their highest in decades as Beijing rages against a visit to Taipei earlier this month by United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.