Paris: A French national television network aired a documentary on Sunday highlighting China's expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea and how Taiwan and the Philippines are responding to the "unprecedented" threat.
According to Focus Taiwan, the 80-minute documentary titled "Red Alert in the South China Sea" (Alerte rouge en mer de Chine) was broadcast on M6, a privately-owned French TV channel. The documentary emphasized that "the threat of invasion is unprecedented," with Taiwan entering "a long-term state of alert, with people actively preparing for a potential attack."
The film reported that over 80 percent of Taiwanese people oppose unification with Beijing, stating that "independence" is the prevailing consensus. It suggested that Beijing's desire to annex Taiwan is driven by historical and "nationalism" factors, as well as the geopolitical goal of securing unimpeded access to the Pacific Ocean.
Several Taiwanese figures were interviewed in the documentary. Major General Tung Chi-hsing, director of the joint operations planning division of Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, noted that China's threat to Taiwan is "increasing." The documentary also featured satellite images of to-scale imitations of Taiwan's Presidential Office building and surrounding streets, built in Inner Mongolia by the Chinese government, apparently for training ground forces for a potential decapitation strike against Taiwan's democratically-elected leadership.
Alexander Huang, director of the Kuomintang's (KMT) international affairs department, was quoted in the film, discussing the KMT's efforts to maintain communication with Beijing. He emphasized that Taiwan is "not ready for war" and needs to buy time to reform the military, acquire new weaponry, and conduct training.