For many, the escalation in intensity of military exercises around Taiwan has ceased to be shocking and is now a familiar, yet hard-to-ignore background noise. They have seeped into everyday life in the form of breaking news notifications during the early morning commute, military alerts that pop up between tasks at work and occasional forwarded discussions in family group chats. The seemingly muted response from members of the public is a result of adaptation under long-standing pressures.
For frontline workers, the drills have a tangible impact on the rhythms of daily life. Teachers must face questions from students and offer calm explanations of the situation; industry workers must consider impacts on shipping, logistics, and market fluctuations for how their supply chains and clientele might be affected. By and large, people’s concerns are simple and pragmatic. They center on whether or not their jobs would be affected and what adjustments they might need to make in their day, rather than on grand political considerations.
Exposure to prolonged military pressures can give rise to self-contradictions in mass social psychology. Although the public is highly sensitive to national security issues and no stranger to airspace disturbances, military exercises, or geopolitical disruptions, the sheer frequency of the drills can blunt reactions and reduce the sense of immediacy of a potential crisis. Risks are normalized, and society is caught between states of alert and fatigue — not completely numb to the dangers, but struggling to maintain high levels of mobilization as time drags on. This is a kind of psychological strain unique to the collective experience of Taiwanese society.
Politically, military exercises have been adopted and interpreted under competing narrative frameworks, each provoking different emotional responses. For some people, the drills stand as concrete proof of external threats, highlighting the need for stronger support for national security and defense policies. For others, the spotlight on military tensions only deepens anxieties and breeds mistrust. The intense politicization of security issues leads to the fragmentation of public sentiment, turning rational debate to factional polarization. From a long-term governance perspective, the key issue is not whether the public is sufficiently worried, but whether society has the capacity to steadily handle and absorb the risks.
Military drills are unlikely to disappear in the near future. For the government, enabling the public to understand the risks they represent without becoming controlled by those risks would be a test of its ability to
communicate and institutional credibility. Clear and nonsensationalized messaging could help the public form reasonable expectations, avoid real risks being overlooked and prevent overreaction at critical moments. In this way, effective risk communication is an integral part of defense resilience.
Taiwan is undergoing a silent process of adjustment to its new normal. People are not indifferent; they are seeking continuity in their lives amid uncertainty. They are not without views, but are trying to preserve space for independent judgement beyond political narratives. How Taiwan maintains normal social functioning while deepening a rational consensus on security issues would determine whether it can, under pressure, maintain its form as a mature and stable democratic society.
Chen Ling-yao is an operations director.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
China badly misread Japan. It sought to intimidate Tokyo into silence on Taiwan. Instead, it has achieved the opposite by hardening Japanese resolve. By trying to bludgeon a major power like Japan into accepting its “red lines” — above all on Taiwan — China laid bare the raw coercive logic of compellence now driving its foreign policy toward Asian states. From the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas to the Himalayan frontier, Beijing has increasingly relied on economic warfare, diplomatic intimidation and military pressure to bend neighbors to its will. Confident in its growing power, China appeared to believe
After more than three weeks since the Honduran elections took place, its National Electoral Council finally certified the new president of Honduras. During the campaign, the two leading contenders, Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla, who according to the council were separated by 27,026 votes in the final tally, promised to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan if elected. Nasralla refused to accept the result and said that he would challenge all the irregularities in court. However, with formal recognition from the US and rapid acknowledgment from key regional governments, including Argentina and Panama, a reversal of the results appears institutionally and politically
In 2009, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) made a welcome move to offer in-house contracts to all outsourced employees. It was a step forward for labor relations and the enterprise facing long-standing issues around outsourcing. TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) once said: “Anything that goes against basic values and principles must be reformed regardless of the cost — on this, there can be no compromise.” The quote is a testament to a core belief of the company’s culture: Injustices must be faced head-on and set right. If TSMC can be clear on its convictions, then should the Ministry of Education
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) provided several reasons for military drills it conducted in five zones around Taiwan on Monday and yesterday. The first was as a warning to “Taiwanese independence forces” to cease and desist. This is a consistent line from the Chinese authorities. The second was that the drills were aimed at “deterrence” of outside military intervention. Monday’s announcement of the drills was the first time that Beijing has publicly used the second reason for conducting such drills. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is clearly rattled by “external forces” apparently consolidating around an intention to intervene. The targets of
RSS