The laws of the playground: Information warfare and propaganda across the Taiwan Strait

The Taiwan Strait2 is, together with the Korean Demilitarised Zone (another leftover from the Cold War) one of the twenty-first century’s most dangerous political and military hotspots. Taipei and Beijing are preparing for war against each other – Taiwan to maintain its democratic status and resist absorption into the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing to fulfil its manifest destiny of unifying China once and for all and to repel any moves towards de jure independence by the ‘renegade province’ Taiwan. China and Taiwan use annual military exercises to simulate the war that each is trying to avoid in the Strait; China has over 600 missiles in Fujian province pointed at the island, while the May 2007 Han Kuang 23 exercise revealed that Taiwan has developed its own offensive military capacity to attack targets on the Chinese mainland. Further, both sides are also compelled to consider the role of the United States that recognises but one China and calls for a peaceful settlement to the Taiwan issue, but also acknowledges Taiwan’s right to defend itself in the event of attack by its neighbour. The Seventh Fleet, America’s naval presence in the Pacific, has been used on more than one occasion to send a symbolic message to Beijing and Taipei that conflict will not be tolerated and that the US is prepared to intervene in the eventuality of war in the Taiwan Strait.