On a beach in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, just a few kilometers from Taiwan’s Kinmen, life is carefree, despite some of the worst cross-strait tensions in decades.
Ignoring warnings from Beijing, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit the nation in 25 years — sparking a diplomatic firestorm.
China yesterday launched some of its largest-ever military drills — exercises set to disrupt one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Photo: AFP
However, on Xiamen’s palm-fringed beach, there was little concern.
“A war? No, I don’t care,” a young IT worker surnamed Hwang told reporters as he took a lunchtime stroll.
“As residents of [China’s] Fujian, we’re used to tensions in the Taiwan Strait. We’ve lived with them for decades,” he said, referencing flare-ups between the two sides since the 1950s.
“Something could happen at any moment, but the probability is low, so we aren’t worried,” Hwang said. “But Pelosi’s visit breaks the balance that there was.”
Unfazed by the news, young newlyweds smiled for photographs, people walked their dogs and children played in the sand.
“I think and I hope there won’t be a war,” said Zheng Dahai, a 30-year-old who brought his son to set up a tent on the beach and have a bite to eat. “A conflict would have repercussions on us, our lives, there might even be injuries.”
Behind him, 6km offshore, is Kinmen County, home to just over 100,000 people.
This makes this beach one of the few places where the military forces of China and Taiwan face each other at such a short distance.
If a war were to break out, this would be ground zero.
“We don’t want war. We want to live in peace and mutual respect,” said a retiree who goes to the beach to swim every day, including in winter. “On the other hand, if you don’t respect me, if you come to bully me, then that’s another story. If the other is strong or not, even me, an old man, I will fight.”
Further away, two tourists took a selfie in front of a monument emblematic of Xiamen’s unique location: eight Chinese characters, several meters high, that form a patriotic slogan addressed to the Taiwanese authorities on the other side.
“One country, two systems: ‘reunify’ China,” says the slogan, referencing the political compromise that saw Hong Kong and Macau returned to Chinese rule in the 1990s.
“Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” said Hu, a 40-year-old in a yellow tank top who came to run on the seafront.
“Sooner or later, it will return” to the motherland, he said before continuing his stretches.
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