Taiwan’s armed forces wrapped up their Han Kuang military exercises last week — the annual war-games aimed at simulating an invasion by China — with live-fire drills, air raid defence rehearsals and an amphibious landing on the southern tip of the island.
The drills were held against a backdrop of rising anxiety among Taiwanese buffeted by a slowing economy and rising pressure from Beijing, which at the weekend reasserted its determination to defend “at all costs” its claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, a de facto independent state, at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore.
Amanda Chao, a normally cheerful 26-year-old interior designer, is typical of a younger generation concerned that Taiwan will be sucked in by its big, bullying neighbour.