Desk Report
Publish: 02 Aug 2022, 09:58 pm
People demonstrate taking shelter with their hands covering their eyes and ears while keeping their mouth open, during a drill at a basement parking lot that will be used as an air-raid shelter in the event of an attack, in Taipei, Taiwan, on July 22, 2022 || Photo: Reuters/ Ann Wang
Taiwan
is preparing its air-raid shelters as rising tension with China and Russia's
invasion of Ukraine raise new fears about the possibility of a Chinese attack
on the democratic island.
China
considers Taiwan its territory and has increased military activity in the air
and seas around it. Taiwan vows to defend itself and has made strengthening its
defences a priority, with regular military and civil defence drills.
The
preparations include designating shelters where people can take cover if
Chinese missiles start flying in, not in purpose-built bunkers but in
underground spaces like basement car parks, the subway system and subterranean
shopping centres.
The
capital of Taipei has more than 4,600 such shelters that can accommodate some
12 million people, more than four times its population.
Harmony
Wu, 18, was surprised to learn that an underground shopping concourse where she
and other youngsters were recently rehearsing some dance moves would be turned
into an air-raid shelter in the event of war.
But
she said she could understand why.
"Having
shelter is very necessary. We don't know when a war might come and they are to
keep us safe," Wu said at the venue near a Taipei subway station.
"War
is brutal. We've never experienced it so we aren't prepared," she said.
Taipei
officials have been updating their database of designated shelters, putting
their whereabouts on a smartphone app and launching a social media and poster
campaign to make sure people know how to find their closest one.
Shelter
entrances are marked with a yellow label, about the size of an A4 piece of
paper, with the maximum number of people it can take.
A
senior official in the city office in charge of the shelters said events in
Europe had brought a renewed sense of urgency.
"Look
at the war in Ukraine," Abercrombie Yang, a director of the Building Administration
Office, told Reuters.
"There's
no guarantee that the innocent public won't get hit," he said, adding that
that was why the public had to be informed.
"All
citizens should have crisis awareness ... We need the shelters in the event of
an attack by the Chinese communists."
'NOT
STRESSED'
Last
month, Taiwan held a comprehensive air-raid exercise across the island for the
first time since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted regular drills.
Among
the instructions citizens got in case of incoming missiles was to get down in
their basement parking lots with their hands covering their eyes and ears while
keeping their mouths open - to minimise the impact of blast waves.
Some
civil defence advocates say more needs to be done.
Authorities
are required by law to keep the shelters clean and open but they don't have to
be stocked with supplies like food and water.
Researchers
in parliament called in June for shelters to be provided with emergency
supplies.
Wu
Enoch of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party says the public must prepare
survival kits to take with them when they seek shelter.
"What's
important is what you bring with you, for people to stay there for a long
period of time," Wu said, citing medical supplies and even tools to build
a makeshift toilet.
After
decade of sabre-rattling across the Taiwan Strait separating the democratic
island from China, many Taiwan people appear resigned to living with the threat
of a Chinese invasion.
"I'm not stressed. I carry on with my life as usual. When it happens, it happens," said Teresa Chang, 17, who was also going through her paces at the underground dance practice._Reuters
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