Mind you, I understand what it is to wax nostalgic over the past. After all, that’s what I’m doing here. I admire the sparkling subway, the sanitation, the safety, the beautiful modern buildings, and the democratic society (however divided). But I miss being able to ride my bicycle out of town and into the rice fields of the countryside in a half an hour. The shouts of “Watermelon!” on the alley. And even the smell of the sewer. The antiseptic today is less other, and doesn’t clutch at me. So I get that Sister still carries a torch for Chiang Kai-Shek and his visions of a united China (under his rule, of course). “He did so many good things for Taiwan,” she says. "Made modern, economically successful.”
And after
seeing a big piece of Taiwan’s seashore over the past couple of days, I can see
why Sister says that China could squish the island like a bug. The country is
only about the size of the state of Maryland and home to 23 million people. With
almost all of Taiwan’s energy supply imported and most of its food, a naval
blockade of the four major ports would quickly starve it out. Unless, that is,
the U.S. got involved. Taiwan has long been little more than a bargaining chip
between the two world powers. Also a semiconductor chip, since Taiwan makes
more than half of the world’s supply. And the more I read about Trump’s
developing (aka unpredictable) China “policy”—tariffs, national security—the
less I can follow it.
China looms large in Taiwan. Even on the
Pacific coast, hilltops are dotted with radar installations. “They are looking
for China,” Sister says.
When I was here 55 years ago, there were gun
emplacements on hilltops overlooking the rice fields that surrounded Taipei
city. Now apartment towers have supplanted the rice fields, and high tech
surveillance, the guns.
A radar installation on Yangminshan—the rounded object on the ridge. And what I believe to be radar on the Pacific coast of Taiwan.
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