In this episode, we wonder if Taiwan would resist a Chinese invasion with Cyrille Pluyette, deputy editor-in-chief of the World service of L’Express.
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The team: Charlotte Baris (presentation), Léa Bertrand (writing) and Jules Krot (editing and production).
Credits: Tea Guardian
Music and design: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Image credits: SAM YEH/AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
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Charlotte Baris: It’s been a while since we used it. So it’s been tucked away in the back of the closet, but to start this episode I’m going to need the teleporter… Here it is! I simply enter the coordinates of our destination.
And we have just arrived in Taiwan. More precisely, at the Hshinsu Air Force Base, on the west coast of the island, an hour by train from the capital, Taipei. I have intentionally landed in the heart of the base, in the “ready room”. Inside, the pilots of the Taiwanese Air Force await the order to take off. Standing or sitting on a sofa, some watch television, while others read a book.
Do you hear that alarm? That’s the signal. One of the pilots leaps out of the room. He rushes to his fighter plane, in the hangar right next door. A colleague helps him strap himself in, puts on his helmet, then he climbs into his Mirage 2000-5 and closes the window, ready to move onto the runway. We have just witnessed a training exercise. And it is successful: less than six minutes have passed between the alert and the moment the plane leaves the ground.
This timed staging serves only one purpose: to prepare for a possible Chinese attack. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, the former island of Formosa has been stuck between the threat of reunification by force and an impossible declaration of independence. But with the ascension of the new Taiwanese president on May 20, the scenario of an armed conflict with China is becoming increasingly likely. So is Taiwan ready for a confrontation? We return to the studio to explain everything to you.
For further
Taiwan: How the new president has rekindled China’s anger
Military maneuvers in Taiwan: China wants to inflict “punishment” on Taipei
Taiwan: New President Pledges to Defend Democracy Against China
WHO: Why the exclusion of Taiwan harms everyone, by François Chih-chung Wu