Taiwan’s recurring air‑raid drills—sirens wailing, families ducking into shelters—are rehearsals forced on a peaceful democracy by a neighbor that calls conquest “reunification.” In this op-ed, the author writes in anger at this grim routine, noting that Taiwan practices only defense while Beijing frames potential bloodshed as familial love. If protecting one’s children from missiles is now branded provocation, what does that say about the world’s tolerance for coercion disguised as kinship?
Today I am breaking two self-imposed rules as a writer.
The first is to never write in the heat of the moment about a subject that’s dear to me -in this case Taiwan-, to make sure the writing comes from level-headed reasoning and not from the gut.
The second rule is more recent. As a current resident in Taiwan, I’ve decided not to write about China and cross-Strait relations, there’s enough of that already. I would much rather write about the many things this amazing country has earned a right to boast about (yes, I said country, so sue me).
But today I’m angry, so rules be damned. Because we’ve just had a series of nationwide defense drills, for the second time in the year I’ve been here, and that irks me in ways that impel me to write about it.
Why should the citizens of a democratic and peaceful country, that poses no threat to any of its neighbors, live under the fear that a cascade of missiles can start raining on their heads any day, destroying their homes and killing untold numbers? Why should they drill how to prepare to face bombers and tanks, and hide in air raid shelters to escape death? Why should they have to explain to their children that sirens are blaring because peace is a luxury that they can only enjoy for as long as a foreign leader across the Strait doesn’t decide to let loose the dogs of war?
Whatever your political preferences are, the undeniable truth is that Taiwan is no warmonger. If anything, it is an agent of stability and promoter of prosperity in the region, and the world at large. Yet it finds itself forced to prepare for war because it faces the constant menace of a powerful neighbor bent on annexing this island and imposing its system of government on 23 million people that (mostly) would like nothing better than to go on with their lives and decide their future for themselves.
Ukrainians know the feeling. Moscow justified its war of aggression on the blatant lie that, by leaning towards the European Union, Ukraine presented a mortal danger to the very survival of Russia. In a similarly twisted fashion, Beijing argues that the goal of “reuniting the Chinese family” -in itself a doubtful concept- may well justify killing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of their “relatives”.
Really? What kind of family is that which can only be saved by murdering each other? What kind of familial love can survive the mass killing of your supposed kin? Keeping your relatives in constant fear for their lives is no way to show love for the “family”. Everybody knows that. I’m sure the Chinese people, with their long tradition of filial piety and ancestor reverence, know it too.
A war of aggression -and that’s what any invasion of Taiwan would be- is always a deliberate act, a conscious decision, not a historical inevitability dictated by geopolitical forces or kinship obligations. The only reason the Taiwanese people prepare for war is the fear that war will be unleashed upon them, not any desire to be the aggressors themselves.
So, they drill for defense, not for attack. They drill to protect themselves, not to threaten any foe. They drill as a reminder that their peace, even their survival, is not guaranteed. And it is heart-wrenching to watch.
This op-ed was originally published in the Commonwealth Magazine.
Marcel Oppliger is a Chilean journalist and writer living in Taipei. He is the former opinion editor of newspapers Diario Financiero, La Tercera and La Segunda in Santiago, and the author of three non-fiction books.