Flights, Shipping, Fishing Disrupted by Chinese Military Drills

TaiwanPlus News

China's largest military drills of the year have already affected citizen's daily lives – from flights to Taiwan's outlying islands to shipping lanes to fishing boat crews stuck in port.

Transcript

00:00Domestic flights from Taipei Songshan Airport to outlying islands canceled,

00:05the most visible consequence of China's latest military drills around Taiwan.

00:09Officials say cancellations have already affected 6,000 passengers and that number

00:14is only going to grow. Feelings at the airport on Tuesday morning were mixed.

00:30It seems like we have all their goals, so we are more concerned about it.

00:36We hope that we are more concerned about it.

00:40It's still good, I don't have a lot of attention to this issue.

00:44It's been a lot of time, so I'm a little習慣. I'm not worried about this issue.

00:49I don't have a lot of attention. I just saw a little bit more, I'm worried about it.

00:54It's not just commercial flights, shipping lanes have also been disrupted.

01:07On Taiwan's east coast, fisher vessels were stuck in port, leading to some to call for

01:12compensation for lost income.

01:14Even as China's military surrounds the country, President Lai Chengde has said Taiwan would

01:18not provoke confrontation or escalate tensions, though the military has deployed units to

01:22monitor the situation.

01:24The drills are set to end Tuesday evening, but the Chinese military has already said they

01:28achieved their desired results.

01:30What it basically says to me is that the PLA recognizes that this is not just about Taiwan.

01:37It's about being able to fully implement whatever anti-access aerial denials sort of operations

01:43they want to be able to do.

01:45The Taiwan aspect of it and trying to coerce Taiwan, that's a massive deal.

01:49But the signaling towards we're not going to allow the United States and allies or whomever

01:54else wants to get in to get into what is the area around Taiwan is big.

01:58From Taipei to Washington, all eyes are on the Taiwan Strait and China's sudden moves.

02:03But for many in Taiwan, they just want life to go back to normal.

02:06Alex Chen and Larry Siano for Taiwan Plus.

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