Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets roared across the sky at dawn, dropping bombs on Chinese ships sailing towards a rocky beach in the middle of the Taiwan Strait. Tanks on the shore shook the earth with rounds that sunk the mainland invaders trying to storm the island.
The barrage was intense. But it was not the kind of firing that, at least until recently, experts worried could erupt between China and the island that Beijing considers a renegade province. The enemy forces, for starters, were just coloured buoys.
Under the gaze of Ma Ying-jeou, president, Taiwan’s military was conducting military exercises that simulated conflict with China’s People’s Liberation Army.