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Anxiety in Taiwan as ‘angry’ China’s sabre-rattling grows louder
- Fears of a conflict breaking out across the strait are at their highest in decades
- It’s the most dangerous, unstable and consequential flashpoint on the planet, observer says
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The tank traps on the beaches of Quemoy are a stark reminder that Taiwan lives under the constant threat of a Chinese invasion – and fears of a conflict breaking out are now at their highest in decades.
Democratic Taiwan has learned to live with the warnings of Beijing’s authoritarian leaders that they are ready and willing to seize a place it views as part of its territory.
But that background static has reached hard-to-ignore levels recently with China’s jets now crossing into Taiwan’s defence zone at an unprecedented rate and the People’s Liberation Army releasing propaganda simulating an invasion of the island – and even an attack on US bases in Guam.
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Not since the mid-1990s, when China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait during a moment of heightened tension, has the sabre-rattling been so loud.
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Sitting under a pavilion at National Quemoy University on the Taiwan-ruled island – also known as Kinmen – just off the Chinese mainland, first-year student Wang Jui-sheng says he feels more than a little unsettled.
“China is angry at Taiwan and acting all the more brutish,” he said. “I’m worried about the chance of military conflicts between the two sides, possibly even in the near future.”
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