The 70-year-old Liao, a military spokesman, said she wasn’t worried about war as China practiced live-fire drills and rehearsed a military blockade in the waters surrounding Taiwan this week. She was observing the stock market, playing mahjong with her friends, and enjoying her retirement.
As Liao was getting her hair cut and shampooed in time for the new year at a salon in New Taipei City, Liao claimed, “Everyday life hasn’t been impacted.” I’ve been a resident of Taiwan for 70 years. I’ve grown to like it. We must still wash our hair, everyone.
Liao’s hairstylist reaffirmed that “we’re not scared.” She hadn’t even noticed that the drills were taking place. Working people don’t have the time to concentrate on these things. They can’t do anything but work, Liao said.
Taiwanese are not indifferent to threats coming from China. While Taiwan’s 24-hour news channels broadcast news about them in quick succession on social media and for the most part remained unaffected this week during what China called “Justice Mission 2025.”
Disinformation, which is a regular component of these exercises, was also widely distributed, including a propaganda video that showed an aircraft circling the Taipei 101 skyscraper, which Taiwan’s government dismissed as fake.
However, Taiwanese people have a regular presence in their daily lives. Since 1949 when the communists won the Chinese Civil War and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC), China has asserted sovereignty over Taiwan, a self-governing democracy. China asserts that it will use force to reunite Taiwan with the PRC if necessary, and that it is becoming more assertive with its behavior in Taiwan as its confidence grows in its military prowess and capabilities.
The China Daily, a state news outlet, wrote in an editorial on Monday that the drills were “part of a series of Beijing’s responses” to Taiwan’s $11 billion arms package, as well as a warning to [Taiwanese President William] Lai Ching-te authorities in Taiwan.
Washington does not officially acknowledge Taiwan, but it has made a pledge to support Taipei’s defense in accordance with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and the 1982 Six Assurances.
Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added that the exercises were “a necessary step to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and were “a punitive and deterrent action against separatist forces who seek Taiwan’s independence through military expansion.”
Due to the resilience of Taiwan’s economy and the “sacred mountain,” or “sacred mountain,” which many people in Taiwan refer to as the “silicon shield,” which many believe will shield Taiwan from invasion, Liao is confident that China won’t launch an attack. For its own high-tech industries, China depends on TSMC’s advanced semiconductors. The stock market is up 200 points today, look. Everyone would be selling their stocks if fighting broke out today, right?” said Liao.
We’re a little numb, you say?
The exercises, which were conducted after then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, the highest-ranking American official in decades, served as reminders of Chinese drills in 2022 for many interviewees.
The exercises lasted four days in August that year, including live-fire drills, naval deployments, air sorties, and ballistic missile launches.
They inaugurated a new era of Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) violations in Taiwan. Only 41 violations were recorded in November 2021. According to information from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, that number had increased to 266 by November of this year. China has conducted six extensive military exercises around Taiwan since the Pelosi visit in 2022.
According to polls from the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, DC, Taiwan’s population has been impacted by this growth. It found that just under 65 percent of people were concerned about a cross-strait war in 2023, a moderate increase from just over 57 percent in 2021. In contrast to the 46% who said they thought Xi Jinping was more likely to use force against Taiwan five years ago in 2021, nearly 58 percent of respondents said they thought.
We’ve gotten used to it, according to Ms. Yeh, who owns a flower shop in New Taipei City. Customers swung in and out of the two days of Chinese war games this week as usual. The drills that are taking place just offshore were not discussed.
However, she continued, “even if people weren’t showing it on their faces, the drills seemed more serious this time,” and the atmosphere felt different this time.” She said, “I believe Taiwanese people are resigned to their fate.” There is nothing we can do for regular people, he said. What else can we do besides vote in Taiwan?
Yeh claimed that her trust in the KMT to protect Taiwan has gotten worse as escalating cross-strait tensions and the warmth that the country’s main opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party, exhibits toward China.
After being a lifelong KMT voter, she again in 2016 voted for Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate in 2024.
The Kuomintang has repeatedly blocked the DPP’s proposed special defense budget, while the Chinese Communist Party has turned down its engagement with the DPP, which supports Taiwan’s distinctive identity and sovereignty. Cheng Li-wun, the KMT’s new chairperson, has alleged that Lai is bringing Taiwan to war-torn ends and has given a meeting with Xi 2026 prior.
“I can only watch,”
Wang, a 19-year-old university student, shared her thoughts with Yeh. As she studied with a friend at a cafe on Wednesday, she said, “I’m a little worried, even to the point where I want to write a will.” “This time feels more serious,” he said. Although it seems more realistic, I feel helpless because I can only watch.
Wang claimed that Taiwan’s atmosphere had already become tense. In the center of Taipei on December 19, a 27-year-old named Chang Wen stabbed and exploded smoke grenades, killing three people and injuring 11. In the city, this kind of violence is uncommon. The cause of Chang’s death is unknown, and he acted alone during a police chase.
The island was shaken by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake off Yilan’s northeastern coast on Saturday, despite the magnitude’s small-damage.
Source: Aljazeera
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