Find your nearest shelter, carry bottled drinking water and be prepared to fight for your life. These are the instructions being issued to ordinary Taiwanese citizens in the event of a Chinese invasion of their island, a prospect that became just a little bit more real this week with Beijing’s latest military drills.
The recommendations in a civil defence guide produced by the NGO WatchOut refer loosely to “times of crisis and war”, and most of them could apply just as readily to a massive earthquake or other natural disaster. Residents are told to have a go-bag always at the ready, filled with essential medicines and enough instant noodles, beef jerky and chocolate bars to last at least three days.
But there’s no question that the main threat envisaged by its authors is an all-out invasion by the island’s much larger neighbour: China claims sovereignty over Taiwan as a breakaway province, and its leader Xi Jinping has vowed to “reunite” the island with the mainland by force if necessary.
US intelligence reports say Xi has instructed his military to be ready to invade by the year 2027 if he gives the order, and yesterday a record 153 warplanes from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) flew test runs towards the island as part of massive drills designed to intimidate and assess Taiwan’s defences. Beijing called the exercises “punishment” for a National Day speech by Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te vowing to resist Chinese “annexation”.
“We are readying people for the war, even if they believe it is not happening today. China’s war is at our doorstep, with a plethora of misinformation about our president fleeing Taipei and our soldiers not fighting back against the PLA,” Kuochun Hung, WatchOut’s chief operating officer, tells The Independent.
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