Kinmen: Is war history?
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KIMENN, Taiwan — Just three kilometers from the Kinmen Islands, the closest Taiwanese outpost to China, residents can stand on the beach and look across at the growing forest of skyscrapers in the Chinese city of Xiamen. But rather than feeling threatened by its proximity to a country that has vowed to “unify” with Taiwan (by force if necessary), most Kinmen residents say they feel safer on China’s doorstep than on Taiwan itself. This is not to say that Beijing has never threatened Quemoy. Also known as the Golden Gate, the islands bear familiar scars of former battlefields, including a tank that can still be seen half-buried in the sand at low tide. These are the physical remnants of the frontline struggle between communist China and democratic Taiwan that continues to this day. An hour’s flight southwest of Taipei, Kinmen’s legacy as a geopolitical fault line stems from Mao Zedong’s founding of communist China in 1949, which forced Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), to retreat to Taiwan. Decades of artillery fire Since then, Kinmen has been subject to intermittent artillery exchanges, including a 44-day bombardment that began on August 23, 1958. The incident has many names, including the 823 Artillery War and the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. The Communists and Kuomintang eventually agreed to bombard each other every other day, a pattern that ended in 1979, when the United States ceased diplomatic recognition of Taiwan’s government in favor of communist China. The Kuomintang, now the main opposition party in Taipei, remains popular with most Kinmen residents because of its support for closer ties with China. In contrast, many supporters of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) advocate distancing themselves from communist China and consider themselves Taiwanese. Kinmen residents’ identities and perceptions of their relationship with China are uniquely shaped by the island’s war history and proximity to China. Wu Zengdong: Knifemaker Wu Zengdong has half a century of experience in making knives and kitchen tools. His grandfather was a blacksmith and his family has lived on the island for more than 80 years. His brand, Maestro Wu, has several stores in Kinmen and is a regular among tourists, and is famous for its knives made from cannonballs. “The materials we use are mainly cannon shells left over from that time. We are turning waste into treasure.” Wu said. He was only seven months old during the artillery battle of 823, but he remembers growing up under artillery fire every other day. Shells provided a rich source of raw material for kitchen tools when many things were lacking on the island. He said that one shell can be used to make 60 knives. “Sometimes you find cannonballs when you’re walking in the fields. Sometimes when you’re digging at a construction site, they dig up cannonballs.” Many of the shells he uses in his work once contained promotional leaflets. Wu said that as a child, he was expected to hand whatever he found to his teacher without reading the content, but sometimes he would glance at the flyers. “It said how beautiful the scenery in mainland China is and how wonderful life is. It was similar to the flyers we distributed over there.” Wu recalled. Although China no longer fires cannons filled with propaganda leaflets at the islands, the message is the same. Xi Jinping said in his 2024 New Year’s message, “The motherland will definitely be reunified, and the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait must work together to share the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” “. Kinmen residents can see the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen from Kinmen Beach. At night, the dazzling lights of Xiamen’s skyscrapers contrast sharply with the island’s small towns and rural landscape. “We have been paying attention to China for the past 30 years, and we feel that China is Continuous reform and opening up. And in the past 20 years, I think they have made the fastest progress. ” said Wu, describing changes in transportation, economy, culture and other aspects of Xiamen Construction. “Cities and buildings in China are completely different from what we imagined in the past. ” Although China has never withdrawn its threat to use force to unify Taiwan with the mainland if necessary, Wu said Kinmen residents are not worried about attacks on the island. “We grew up in Kinmen and are used to it. If we were afraid, we would all have fled to Taiwan during the 823 artillery battle,” he said. Recalling the past fighting around his forge, Mr. Wu hoped for peace and hoped that the Chinese and Taiwanese governments would treat it in a gentle and peaceful manner Each other. Ni Rong: Retired military officer Born in 1955, Ni Rong, a native of Kinmen, was 3 years old during the 823 artillery battle. He remembers the suddenness of the bombardment, and people living in the mountains would dig holes in the ground to avoid the explosion. “There was no airflow in the holes. , smelled of excrement, and the air was terrible. One day I couldn’t stand it anymore and ran out of the cave. My parents and relatives left the cave and came after me. “” At this moment, a shell hit the place where Ni and his relatives were hiding. Ni said his actions saved the lives of relatives, but there were also many casualties on the island. The Ni family’s house was knocked down. Even after the crisis, the sound of artillery fire remained a part of life on Kinmen Island, and over the next 20 years Communist and Nationalist troops took turns bombarding each other. At the time, military personnel outnumbered the local population. “When I was a child, everyone respected the military. I insisted on taking the military school entrance examination. At that time, my classmates went from class to class to recruit soldiers to serve the country, which meant unifying the country. Unification is not the unification of China and us.” … It was us, the Taiwan government took back China . ” Ni served in the army and retired as a colonel. He now teaches at the National University of Kinmen. Ni claims to be Chinese. “Because of geography, we are almost together. We are very close to each other. We have similar ways of thinking and feelings about China;… Kinmen itself is one of the islands in the Fujian Province of China. ” He also said: “We are all a family. Since we are a family, no one can leave. ” Ni said that most people in Kinmen want Taiwan to be peacefully reunified with China, so “if a war breaks out between China and Taiwan, Kinmen will be the safest place.” “I want to emphasize that when I say reunification, I don’t mean Taiwan was reunited with communist China. Rather, it refers to their unity with us. Watchman Nee said that both sides should communicate based on the universal values of freedom, democracy, and equality. “We can talk about reunification in 50 or even 100 years.” ” Ni said he expected economic and diplomatic pressure from China, but if the Taiwan government does not talk about independence, he believed China would not attack. Ouyang Zhengyi: Retired bag designer Ouyang Zhengyi was born on Kinmen Island, like many who grew up on the island. Like many young people, he left Kinmen Island to look for opportunities. He worked as a bag and wallet designer in Taiwan. He was also sent by his company to work in a factory in China and lived in China for nearly two years. Because his parents were old and in poor health, Ouyang returned to Kinmen to retire. To kill boredom, he spent three to four days a week fishing on the coast. VOA interviewed him while he was fishing at the top of what were once military tunnels that led to the sea where the military once lived. There. Places that were once off-limits to civilians have been turned into tourist attractions. Ouyang remembers that growing up in Kinmen was very different from that time, when the island’s military outnumbered the locals and martial law was enforced on the island. A curfew was imposed and no one could stay at night. Turn on the lights to prevent the Communist troops from seeing the target. His family opened a small restaurant near his home, and the business was not bad. “We lived in a traditional house, with three buildings surrounding a yard. At night, it would be packed with people,” because what was happening in the courtyard could not be seen from the outside. Unlike most Kinmen residents who supported the KMT, Ouyang voted for Lai Qingde, the winning Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate. The latter served as Taiwan’s vice president for eight years. Ouyang said that DPP Chairman Tsai Ing-wen has done a good job during her two terms. Many DPP supporters like Tsai’s efforts to build closer ties with like-minded democracies around the world. They hope Lai continues to do that. “He’s more reliable and more trustworthy. “Ouyang said. “He didn’t reach the top automatically. He came up through experience. Ouyang claimed to be from Kinmen and said that unlike Taiwanese, locals on the island are not afraid of China because of their past experiences. He said that the current tensions and the threat of Chinese attack are just talk. “If they If we wanted to attack, they would have already attacked us. Kinmen is not afraid of China attacking us,” he said. Wu Qingxuan: A college student, Wu Qingxuan has lived in Kinmen for almost three years. Going to school on the island also brings her to frequent trips to the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen. It’s only a 30-minute ferry ride away. Wu In an interview with VOA, she had just returned from Xiamen with her friends and described her impression of this Chinese city. “Even in a small city, the government can do the most basic construction projects, so I think China has contributed to its cities and citizens. said Wu, looking across the water at the high-rise buildings of Xiamen. Kinmen has not experienced the same economic development. Old traditional houses from China’s southeastern Fujian province can still be found on the island. Some have been renovated, others have not. Some buildings Bullet holes can still be seen in the walls of the building. Everywhere there are reminders of Kinmen’s past as a battleground between Communist troops and the Kuomintang. For Wu, the lack of modernization in Kinmen compared to Xiamen was shocking. This This is one of the reasons why many young residents end up leaving the island. “There are fewer young people because the employment opportunities and living standards here are not as good as in the cities, so young people will go to big cities to find jobs. ” Wu explained. Many Kinmen residents support building a bridge connecting Xiamen and Kinmen Island, seeing it as a symbol of peace to promote economic development and strengthen ties. But Taipei and the Democratic Progressive Party government say the bridge will constitute National security risk. Many Kinmen residents, including Wu, disagreed. “Kinmen citizens are not worried about security issues at all because our roots come from there. No one hurts his brother or sister. ”
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