Although Beijing's military build-up in Taiwan Strait and Pacific Ocean tends to attract global attention, its media war has largely been an under-the-radar affair.
Taiwanese shuttlers Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin did not just win, they won against China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, who had entered the competition as the top-ranked players, inevitably making the match political.But — in Paris and in Taiwan, as Lee and Wang collapsed onto the ground in victory — fans offered a stark and ebullient expression of Taiwanese identity in an Olympic Games where such expressions have been repeatedly suppressed.
She’d made a cardboard cutout in the shape of Taiwan and that said “Go Taiwan” in Chinese characters, but an Olympics security officer told her it was “forbidden,” she said in an interview with The Post.
Upset with the label of “Chinese Taipei,” she wanted to make a poster that distinctly captured Taiwanese identity. She found it sad that even this display wasn’t permissible, but at least “it’s good for the world to see what happens to Taiwan, to the Taiwanese.”
Taiwan's military strategy has long focused on stopping China before its troops crossed the 110-mile strait that separates them, but a growing number of defense analysts in Taipei and Washington say Taiwan must prepare for the worst possible scenario: a protracted battle on the island itself.“Taiwan’s reservists are going to be mobilizing where the fight is happening, when the fight is happening,” said Michael Hunzeker, a retired Marine who studies military reform at George Mason University.
The island is patently not ready for that, according to people who have completed military training recently.
How Taiwan overtook America
A lot has changed over the past 30 years as Taiwan has transitioned from a dictatorship to a vibrant democracy.
In Taiwan power is handed over peacefully while it's no longer a certainty in the US.
In Taiwan, guns are illegal. In America, guns are a leading cause of death to children.
My husband and I are not convinced we want to stay in Taiwan forever, but America, with its shocking lack of family-friendly policies, is on the bottom of the list of places we’d consider moving to.
Thinking beyond Trump
During this year's election cycle, however, opinions are much more muted. President Joe Biden has defied skeptics by maintaining a tough stance against China over the last four years and pro-Trump sentiments have waned considerably, especially in light of recent comments by the former president accusing Taiwan of taking away America's semiconductor business.
According to last year's Global Peace Index, Taiwan is the 33rd most peaceful state or territory in the world. The United States, on the flip side, is the 131st.
Now in his 60s, my father is convinced the Chinese threat will not materialize. While I don't agree with him, I understand his point of view. Cross-strait tensions have been strained for seven decades already and, with each passing year, the conflict feels more abstract in spite of the heightened rhetoric and airspace incursions because, eventually, you become numb to it.
I asked my dad - a lifelong Republican who he believed was a bigger threat this year: Chinese president Xi Jinping or former president Donald Trump.
He responded without hesitation. 'Trump,' he said. 'Because he's more unpredictable'.
Some 5,000 miles separate Taipei and Kyiv, but in Washington, the two embattled capitals seem almost geopolitical neighbors.
The prospect of Xi following in Putin’s footsteps and attempting a land grab across the straits seems more likely than it once did. And Taiwan, with new infusions of U.S. military aid, is preparing more vigorously to head off the threat. For the Taiwanese public, the Russian invasion of Ukraine “has brought some perspective, some reality” to the dangers at their own doorstep, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador in Washington, told me.
Last year, Taiwan boosted its defense spending by some 14 percent from the previous budget. It has expanded the training period of the country’s compulsory military service from four months to one year. Like Ukraine, it is trying to develop its asymmetric warfare capabilities in the face of a far larger and more powerful aggressor. And its officials have also noted the sweeping whole-of-society involvement that has accompanied Ukraine’s defense, the “civic resiliency,” as Yui put it, that undergirds the bravery with which Ukraine’s forces defied the odds and staved off Russian conquest in the early months of the war.
A quarantine is more feasible for China and more likely than an invasion or blockade in the near term; it also presents unique challenges in terms of how Taiwan and the international community can respond.
Announcing the drills in April, Taiwan's defense ministry said the war games would practice "kill" zones at sea to break a blockade and simulate a scenario where China suddenly turns one of its regular drills around the island into an attack.But China has also been using gray zone warfare against Taiwan, wielding irregular tactics to exhaust a foe by keeping them continually on alert without resorting to open combat. This includes sending balloons over the island and almost daily air force missions into the skies near Taiwan.
Taiwan will receive 720 Switchblade missiles and accompanying fire control systems worth $60.2 million, according to a release from the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on Tuesday.The US will also provide Taiwan with up to 291 Altius 600M loitering munitions and supporting components with a price tag of $300 million, the DSCA said.
As we meet the global challenges of adopting more and more smart technologies, we in Taiwan, a 'silicon island,' must do all we can to expedite Taiwan's transformation into an 'AI island,' Ching-te said on Monday (May 20).'We must adapt AI for industry and step up the pace of AI innovation and applications. We must also adapt industry for AI and use AI's computational power to make our nation, our military, our workforce, and our economy stronger.'
We must walk on the right path, and our industries must make every effort, so that we may be a force for global prosperity. With every step forward that Taiwan takes, the world takes a step forward with us.”`
Batter up
Few pastimes embody Taiwan’s hybrid identity as much as baseball.
Japan, which colonized Taiwan for 50 years starting in 1895, introduced the American sport.
Today, baseball is a national obsession. Watching a game in Taiwan today involves nonstop cheering, dancing and singing — by performers as well as the crowd. Being in the stands is a serious workout for many, with crowds bringing batons, horns, drums and even their own microphones and amplifiers as they try to make maximum noise for their team.