A French national television network on Sunday aired a documentary highlighting China's expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea and how Taiwan and the Philippines are responding to the "unprecedented" threat.
The 80-minute documentary titled Red Alert in the South China Sea (Alerte rouge en mer de Chine) and which aired on the privately owned TV channel M6 said that "the threat of invasion is unprecedented" and Taiwan has entered "a long-term state of alert, with people actively preparing for a potential attack."
It also said that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese oppose unification with Beijing, and that "independence" is the consensus view.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The documentary said that Beijing's desire to annex Taiwan is driven by history and "nationalism," as well as the geopolitical goal of securing unimpeded access to the Pacific Ocean.
The filmmakers interviewed several Taiwanese figures, including Major General Tung Chi-hsing (董冀星), director of the Ministry of National Defense’s joint operations planning division, who said that China's threat to Taiwan is "increasing."
The documentary showed satellite images of scale replicas of the Presidential Office Building and surrounding streets in Taipei that the Chinese government has built in Inner Mongolia, apparently to train ground forces for a potential decapitation strike against Taiwan's democratically elected leadership.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) was also quoted in the film as saying that his party tries to maintain communication with Beijing as Taiwan is "not ready for war."
Taiwan needs to buy time to reform the military, acquire new weaponry and conduct training, Huang said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS