The fisherman comes here every day with his rod and a bucket of bait. He knows the skyline of Xiamen like the back of his hand. “I don’t worry about China,” he tells me, “Life here is very peaceful, and we keep to ourselves.” This view is held by many residents of Kinmen, who view themselves neither as Taiwanese, nor as Fujianese. They take pride in their local identity.
søndag 23. august 2026
Kinmen: The Sleepy Fishing Island That Could Be East Asia’s Biggest Flashpoint
“If you look over there, you can see the propaganda sign. It reads ‘unite China under one country two systems,’” a fisherman told me. I was standing surrounded by old rusted anti-tank spikes on the beach of Kinmen, an island administered by Taiwan, but geographically a part of China’s Fujian province. At this closest point, it feels like you can reach out and touch the skyscrapers of China’s Xiamen city, which is just 2 miles across the water.
The fisherman comes here every day with his rod and a bucket of bait. He knows the skyline of Xiamen like the back of his hand. “I don’t worry about China,” he tells me, “Life here is very peaceful, and we keep to ourselves.” This view is held by many residents of Kinmen, who view themselves neither as Taiwanese, nor as Fujianese. They take pride in their local identity.
The fisherman comes here every day with his rod and a bucket of bait. He knows the skyline of Xiamen like the back of his hand. “I don’t worry about China,” he tells me, “Life here is very peaceful, and we keep to ourselves.” This view is held by many residents of Kinmen, who view themselves neither as Taiwanese, nor as Fujianese. They take pride in their local identity.