6 Km From China, Taiwan’s Kinmen Charts Its Own Path

As Taiwan pushes to distance itself from China, Kinmen Island wants to build a bridge to Xiamen and “become a peninsula.” A bridge is under construction between Kinmen and its outlying island, but plans for a bridge to Xiamen, seen in the background, are a non-starter for Taiwan’s central government. “In my political career,” boasted Kinmen Deputy Magistrate Wu Cheng-dian, “I have completed ‘Mission: Impossible’ three times.” The Kinmen county government is now proposing what it calls its “New Three Links.” Along with the pipeline, it wants to connect with China’s electricity grid and build a road bridge between Kinmen and Xiamen. “They think we do not belong to them.” Annette Lu, a former DPP legislator who was Taiwan’s vice president under Chen Shui-bian, recently panned Tsai and Vice President Chen Chien-jien for failing to show up to the 60th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment, in which the PLA sparked the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis by shelling Kinmen, killing 440 ROC soldiers. Residents “would rather have this place, a peaceful place.” Established in 1997, Kinmen’s flagship university recruits Chinese students “to come here and learn democracy, to voice themselves freely,” said Yen. “Kinmen should become a bridge of peace between Taiwan and Mainland China,” said Chou Yang-sun, a professor of Chinese affairs at NQU.