Usually people in Taipei walk quite slowly. Notoriously so. But at 1.27pm on Thursday some were almost sprinting through the busy shopping district of Ximen. They knew they had three minutes to get where they needed to be or they would be stuck in the nearest underground bunker for half an hour.
At 1.30pm exactly, deafening sirens wailed across the city, and a text hit every mobile phone warning: “The enemy has launched a missile attack toward northern Taiwan.”
Cars and buses pulled over in Ximen, and everyone was ushered into the nearby metro station. Mr Liu, 70, was not quite fast enough to get to his meeting and was pacing the station entrance looking at his watch.
Nevertheless he said he supported the drills because they helped people “feel safe” and taught them what to do if one day the real thing – a Chinese airstrike – hits the city.
The annual drills have become increasingly significant in recent years, as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, forges ahead with his plans to annex Taiwan as Chinese territory, by force if his current strategy of intimidation and coercion fails. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East also make the drills feel less hypothetical.
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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