Less than 5 kilometers away, on Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands, life went on as normal, even as China announced a series of unprecedented military exercises that Taiwan’s defense ministry says constitute a blockade. Children played in the streets, students posed for graduation photos, and busloads of tourists continued to tour the islands’ sights. Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Kinmen, also known as Quemoy. Old military sites, holdovers from when the islands were the front lines of the cold war between China and Taiwan, dot the landscape. Giant speakers on the shore that once shouted propaganda across the sea now play soft music. A favorite stop for visitors is Wu Tseng-dong’s workshop. Wu has been making knives for decades, running his father’s business. “At first our main customers were soldiers, but once the tourism industry developed, that’s when we really started making a living,” he says. Each of Wu’s knives is made from a spent artillery shell. On August 23, 1958, China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), launched a ferocious artillery bombardment against Qinmen that continued, to some extent, for more than 20 years. Many people in Kinmen vividly remember living under constant bombing – a fact that sets people in Kinmen apart from most Taiwanese. “Everyone who lived here then has friends and family who were killed. We had to dig our own air raid shelters. If you didn’t, there was nowhere to hide when the shells fell,” says Wu. Vintage tanks displayed in Kinmen. “War is heartless,” says a local. Photo: Rick Yi This heritage and divergent histories – unlike Taiwan, Kinmen was for hundreds of years entirely under Chinese rule in one form or another – means that few in Kinmen would even refer to themselves as ‘Taiwanese’. They are happy to be part of the Republic of China, the official name of Taiwan, and see no need to declare a separate, independent country. The independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party under President Tsai Ing-wen has ruled Taiwan for the past six years, but politics in Kinmen is dominated by the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which favors closer ties with China. The islands’ representative in Taiwan’s legislature, Chen Yu-jen of the KMT, says her constituents are unhappy with Tsai’s policies toward China, citing a lack of communication between the two sides as one of the reasons for the current crisis. While Chen welcomed Pelosi’s visit, she says it was not worth the damage done to Taiwan’s relationship with Beijing. But he says people in Kinmen were not worried about China’s military maneuvers: “There is no reason to attack Kinmen. Their target is Taiwan. if Taiwan falls, then Kinmen will follow.” Her view is shared by Samuel Hui, a military historian living in the central Taiwan city of Taichung. Relics of war abound in Kinmen. “People today have no idea what we went through,” says one veteran. Photo: Rick Yi “Kinmen was very important to Taiwan’s defense. The Chinese Communists had to take Kinmen to have any chance of launching a successful invasion. But now, the PLA has multiple aircraft carriers and ballistic missiles to attack Taipei and other major cities directly. There is no good reason to invade Kinmen.” Despite Kinmen’s historic ties to China, there is a growing generation gap. Many young people leave Kinmen to find work elsewhere in Taiwan, and few can imagine living under the authoritarian system of the communist mainland. In the 2020 election, Tsai’s vote share in Kinmen increased by 57% following Beijing’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong. Nina Hong grew up moving back and forth between the main island of Taiwan and Kinmen. She considers herself Taiwanese and is proud of the democratic freedoms she enjoys. The 28-year-old, who works for a company that sells beauty products in Taiwan, says that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait talk side by side too often. “Pelosi’s visit has driven people to extremes. It has helped more people around the world see Taiwan, but it is not fixed [Taiwan’s international isolation].” Nina Hong: “Pelosi’s visit has driven people to extremes.” Photo: Nina Hong In Wu’s workshop, he demonstrates a newly forged blade while explaining to an audience of grandparents to small children how the people on the island could tell by the sound of an artillery shell that it was about to land. “I don’t think there will be a war,” he says. “But since the pandemic, exchanges between Taiwan and mainland China have stopped. I think it had a negative impact on the relationship.” Asked if he blames Beijing for taking military action after Pelosi’s visit, Wu hesitates. “This is politics, not something ordinary people like us can control,” he says. “All we can hope for is peace.” It’s a sentiment shared by 83-year-old Cheng Ching-li, who heads the local association for veterans of the second crisis in the Taiwan Straits. “People today have no idea what we went through,” he says. “War is heartless. And peace is priceless.”