For the people of Taiwan, China is just “flexing its muscles”

While warships and Chinese aircraft surrounded Taiwan on Thursday, people and television channels did not seem to be alarmed by the situation in the strait.

On the TVBS news channel, reports on Beijing’s military exercises were quickly swept aside on air by topics such as a proposed ban on ambulance sirens or a scandal involving a restaurant and an influencer.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense “strongly condemned” these exercises and announced that it had “deployed maritime, air and land forces to defend freedom, democracy and sovereignty” of the territory.

“Provocative military behavior” from Beijing

Taiwan “will defend the values ​​of freedom and democracy,” said its president Lai Ching-te. “I will stand on the front lines with our brothers and sisters in the military to defend national security together,” he added. A little earlier, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese presidency had deplored “the provocative military behavior” of Beijing.

The menœBeijing’s military operations began at 7:45 a.m. Thursday (11:45 p.m. GMT Wednesday) and are expected to last until Friday. They come three days after President Lai Ching-te’s inauguration speech, which China perceived as an “admission of Taiwan’s independence”. China has long threatened to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, particularly if the island declares independence. And Xi Jinping has increased his declarations that “unification” is “inevitable”.

“What they really want is reunification, which means they want to devour us,” explains a Taipei taxi driver, who gives his name as Hung. This sixty-year-old ridicules the Beijing exercises by asserting that “they are just causing agitation” and “are not going to start a war”. If they really wanted to trigger it, “it would be missiles flying over” Taiwan, he adds.

“Please leave our restricted waters as soon as possible”

The previous large-scale Chinese military exercises around Taiwan took place in August 2023, a “severe warning” according to Beijing after a visit by Mr. Lai, then vice-president, to the United States. Beijing had also launched manœWorks of historic scale in August 2022 following the visit to the island of Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

The new round of exercises took place on Thursday in the Taiwan Strait in the north, south and east of the island of Taiwan, as well as in areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin. These latter islands are located in the immediate vicinity of the Chinese east coast.

Beijing’s coast guard said Friday it had strengthened its patrols in the waters of Kinmen, 140 kilometers west of Taiwan. Between six and eleven Chinese ships “surround” these islands every day, the head of Taiwan’s coast guard said on Monday.

Footage released by the Taiwanese coast guard shows officers ordering Chinese ships to leave the area over a loudspeaker. “Your movements affect the order and security of our country, please turn around and leave our restricted waters as soon as possible,” one of the officers proclaims in a video posted by the coast guard on social media. The Taiwan Coast Guard also deployed its fleet to sea.

Speaking in Canberra, US General Stephen Sklenka described the situation as “worrying”. Chinese state television CCTV released a map showing the nine areas where the exercises are taking place. The closest to the island of Taiwan appears to be located less than 50 kilometers from the coast.

“It’s everyday life”

For Puang Chang, Kinmen tourist guide, “it’s everyday life”. “This situation doesn’t stress me out. I don’t think (China) would launch an attack,” he confides. The tourists who accompanied him on Thursday struggled to see, because of the fog, the skyscrapers of the Chinese megacity of Xiamen, five kilometers as the crow flies.

In Taipei, Lin, a 49-year-old office worker who did not want to give her full name, dismisses the situation, claiming that “financial markets are stable today.” The Taiwan Stock Exchange ended slightly higher on Thursday.

Military exercises were not among the 18 most searched topics in Taiwan on Google that day. Candice Chen, aged 41, explains that she is “more concerned” personally by the heated debates in Taiwan’s Parliament than the Chinese military exercises.

The day after the inauguration of the new president on Monday, the opposition tabled bills aimed at extending the powers of Parliament, which the ruling party contests and considers imposed without adequate consultation. For this forty-year-old who works in e-commerce, China is only “showing its muscles”. “Instead of worrying about all this, I should just live my life,” she says.