A French national television network on Sunday aired a documentary highlighting China's expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea and how Taiwan and the Philippines are responding to the "unprecedented" threat.
The 80-minute documentary titled Red Alert in the South China Sea (Alerte rouge en mer de Chine) and which aired on the privately owned TV channel M6 said that "the threat of invasion is unprecedented" and Taiwan has entered "a long-term state of alert, with people actively preparing for a potential attack."
It also said that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese oppose unification with Beijing, and that "independence" is the consensus view.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The documentary said that Beijing's desire to annex Taiwan is driven by history and "nationalism," as well as the geopolitical goal of securing unimpeded access to the Pacific Ocean.
The filmmakers interviewed several Taiwanese figures, including Major General Tung Chi-hsing (董冀星), director of the Ministry of National Defense’s joint operations planning division, who said that China's threat to Taiwan is "increasing."
The documentary showed satellite images of scale replicas of the Presidential Office Building and surrounding streets in Taipei that the Chinese government has built in Inner Mongolia, apparently to train ground forces for a potential decapitation strike against Taiwan's democratically elected leadership.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) was also quoted in the film as saying that his party tries to maintain communication with Beijing as Taiwan is "not ready for war."
Taiwan needs to buy time to reform the military, acquire new weaponry and conduct training, Huang said.
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