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Colorful smoke and colorful helmets - these Taiwanese soldiers are just practicing.
But the threat is real.
Bernhard Zand, DER SPIEGEL, Taiwan:
»We are here on the west coast of Taiwan, less than 30 or 40 kilometers south of the capital Taipei.
And the Taiwanese armed forces just showed us a maneuver here.
The scenario, very briefly, is exactly the scenario that Taiwan, which actually the whole world fears, is that from over here, on the other side of the horizon, the People's Liberation Army of China comes here, to the west coast of Taiwan, and made an amphibious landing here."
Every year, Taiwan holds a week-long military exercise known as the Han Kuang exercise.
Since Russia's attack on Ukraine, fears have grown that China, its large mainland neighbor, might do something similar to Taiwan.
The government in Beijing does not recognize the sovereignty of democratic Taiwan.
Bernhard Zand, DER SPIEGEL, Taiwan:
»You can still see the 18 soldiers with the red helmets down here, they symbolize the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
And the scenario was: They're coming up, they're displacing the Taiwanese forces that were up here with their amphibious assault.
They pull back, back there by the Coast Guard station, group up there, and then come back here under pretty heavy machine gun fire and sort of retake their old position that we're at.”
Recently, due to the Taiwan conflict, the diplomatic tone between China and the USA has further intensified.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat and Speaker of the House of Representatives, also wants to visit Taiwan on her trip to Asia.
Much to the annoyance of the Communist Party.
On Thursday, President Xi Jinping threatened US President Joe Biden in a telephone call with the words: "Those who play with fire only get burned."
Bernhard Zand, DER SPIEGEL, Taiwan:
»I found it remarkable that here in Taiwan, unlike in NATO maneuvers or maneuvers in the Pacific, it is made very clear who the possible opponent is, even in a military scenario like this, in a military exercise like this.
It is simply said: Those over there are the 'PLA guys', the people from the People's Liberation Army.
That's unusual, and of course in a way it also symbolizes the imminence of the threat here.
The People's Liberation Army is the only possible 'invader', the only possible aggressor that you can imagine here."
Taiwan ended its exercise on Friday.
China, meanwhile, announced a naval exercise of its own for the weekend – firing is to take place in the Taiwan Strait.