Starts:01.00.00.00

Formosa TV news clip

Music

Colgan:  It was the day the lights went out on Taiwan.

00.07

Hubbub

Colgan:  An unprecedented power failure that wrought havoc all over the island.  Fear spread quickly, for weeks mainland China had been threatening to re-take Taiwan by force if necessary.  Many were frightened the attack from the mainland had finally come.

00.16

Panicked callers flooded the phone lines of Taiwan's national defence ministry.

00.36

The president's office quickly issued a statement to calm the country, putting the blackout down to a power station disabled by a landslide.  But even as the lights came back on these already tense islanders were left rattled by a distinct feeling of vulnerability.

00.42

Map Taiwan

Music

01.07

S.T. De is a Taiwanese success story.

De in car

01.27

De:  About one million Taiwanese business people are self-employed and working very hard. They work for their own careers - their own lives.

01.31

Colgan:  In two decades he's turned his tiny family business into an international conglomerate, employing 2000 people and turning over 80 million dollars a year.

01.41

De:  The Taiwanese boss always looks straight at the ground when he's walking  because he's thinking all the time.  It means they work very hard --  and take a very serious approach to business.

01.53

Colgan:  He's the very model of a Taiwanese businessman who lives in fear of what a communist Chinese government might do to the free enterprise that has allowed Taiwan's economy to thrive. 

02.07

Hat showroom

S.T. De's little family business just happens to be one of the biggest cap making companies in the world, with names like Polo, Disney and Nike on his clientele list.  Just like hundreds of thousands of other Taiwanese entrepreneurs he has a big stake in mainland China, with his factories and hundreds of employees there churning out the caps that make his company rich.

02.25

De in showroom

De:  Forty thousand Taiwanese factories have moved over there - that's a fifty billion U.S. dollar investment... and about 200 thousand top management people have gone to work on the mainland.  This is hugely important for the development of China's economy.

02.53

Colgan:   Taiwan and China depend on each other and Taiwan is banking on that mutual need to deter China from launching its missiles.  It's a gamble Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui has been prepared to take.

03.12

Lee's address

In a carefully worded radio interview last month, President Lee broke with past policies to describe China-Taiwan relations as a special state to state relationship.

03.34

To mainland China President Lee's statement was a dangerous declaration of independence.

03.48

China demanded Taiwan back down.  President Lee, it claimed, was a criminal of the nation who'd leave a foul stench behind him for a thousand years.

03.58

China stepped up its verbal attacks and the effect was immediate.  Taiwan's stock market, already experiencing wild fluctuations, now plunged.  Still Taiwanese people backed their president.

04.16

Woman in front of stock market board

Woman:  The way President Lee said what he did shows he has guts.

04.33

View of Formosa

Music

Colgan:  Given the name Formosa by the Portuguese, many have laid claim to this island. The Chinese, the Dutch, the Spaniards, the Japanese. The Americans too have left an indelible mark.  Now with a population of 22 million, its own central government, and distinct identity, Taiwan wants the world to accept reality. It already considers itself independent, and will fight to defend that freedom.

04.43

Colgan in car going to Kinmen

Under military escort, we're taken to a base on Kinmen island, the closest part of Taiwan to mainland China.

05.20

All of Taiwan's 300,000 strong army, navy and airforce troops remain in a state of combat readiness. Only a few parts of the island base could be laid bare to our camera.

05.31

Tunnel

Colgan:   Taiwanese visitors pass underground to view their neighbours from the safety of this bunker. The view of the mainland is beautifully clear, even to the naked eye. But what the naked eye can see isn't necessarily real.

05.48

Guide:  You may see many houses here, but normally ? ? aren't easily to be found. Actually here is a military restricted area and all of the constructions were built for propaganda.

06.09

Colgan:  In these days of medium and long range missiles, it's unlikely Kinmen would ever need to defend Taiwan from waves of Chinese ground troops. But it still plays a vital role in surveillance and early warning.

06.22

Guide:  Here is a hidden machine gun. The black part is a gun hole. The natural environment has been smartly covered in artificial constructions. It won't be found easily without our telescope installations

06.40

Soldiers in training

Colgan:  More importantly, its role as Taiwan's border is deeply entrenched in the mines of those who serve here.

06.58

These are the forces who train on Kinmen, the Amphibious Reconnaissance battalion, Taiwan's frogmen.

07.11

Commander:  We have to train and train and train.

07.26

Get ready to fight once the enemy invade our country. We just do our job.

Colgan and Hung

Colgan:  Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hung, was born and raised on Kinmen Island. He, his family and all the other islanders were subjected to regular bombardment from mainland Chinese troops right up until 1979.

07.41

Commander

Commander:  When I was a child I remember I was playing with my friends... There were three of us. In mainland China they were shooting but the fragments exploded and hurt people.  One of my friends got hurt... severely.

07.59

Soldiers' mess

Colgan:  All of these young men are serving compulsory military duty. They have been born and bred to uphold Taiwan's right to freedom, believing that one day they may have to defend it.

Dr. Su:  Beijing has no claim to our sovereignty. Beijing has never ruled Taiwan for a singe day.

08.27

08.43

Dr. Su

Super:
Dr. SU CHI

Mainland Affairs Council

Beijing has never collected a single dollar in taxes. If they want to come here, they need a visa, and how can they claim that they own Taiwan, they  have sovereignty claim to Taiwan? How can they say that we are their subjects? And it's simply a distortion of reality.

Music

09.08

Men sitting in village

Colgan:   The majority of Taiwanese believe that eventually that Taiwan and China should become one China. After all, their fellow Chinese with a shared culture, ethnicity and language. But until the economies and the politics of the two can co-exist peacefully, the Taiwanese say  it must remain one China divided.

09.14

Old man:  Although mainland China's close to us we feel quite content with the way things are.  We eat as usual - if you have a job, you work - if there's no work, you play.  You don't think much in the direction of unification.

09.40

Dr. Su

Dr. Su:  We are not ready for unification at this moment. As long as Beijing, as long as the mainland continues to be ruled by a Communist Party and communist system, the whole world is abandoning and jettisoning communism. Why should Taiwan people be forced or tricked to embrace communist system.

09.59

Chiang Kai-Shek  monument

Colgan:  It's 50 years since Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek brought his ousted government to exile in Taiwan. In the meantime, the world has come to recognise the communist government of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. Since then, Taiwan has desperately fought to stop Beijing's net tightening around it, bringing it back to the fold as it has Hong Kong and soon will have Macau.

Chen:  People fear about the invasion of Taiwan.

10.26

10.58

Chen and Colgan

Super:

Prof. PO-CHIH CHEN

Economics, National Taiwan Uni

That is,  people are under a situation that we do not have the freedom from fear, and in that case, the financial market will become more fragile and more vulnerable.

Colgan:  Professor Po-Chih Chen is a special economic adviser to President Lee. He forecasts Taiwan's economy will keep being buffeted by China's threats.

11.16

Prof Chen:  China is so irrational and advanced country does not give us enough  moral support. Because advanced countries are more emphasise on its own interests.

11.29

Colgan  walks with Chen

Colgan: Taiwan has become increasingly isolated in the diplomatic world. These days just a handful of countries - mostly African and small Pacific nations - dare defy China to officially recognise Taiwan.

11.45

Prof Chen:  If we are guaranteed that we will not be sacrificed, then we will be happy to cooperate with advanced countries to push the peaceful transformation  of China.

12.02

Fireworks/dragon dance

Music

Colgan:   It's highly unlikely the stand-off between the two Chinas will ease in the coming months. Taiwan is now in the grip of a hotly contested presidential campaign to determine a successor to President Lee Teng-hui.

12.26

Soong on campaign trail

The front runner is this man - once a loyal lieutenant to President Lee, former provincial governor, James Soong, is now a renegade member of the ruling party who's struck out on his own.

12.48

Soong:  No communism! We want the international community to understand that the Taiwanese are not cowards... and we don't want to be ruled by communist China.  What the Taiwanese need is freedom! What the Taiwanese need is democracy! Yes?

Crowd:  Yes!!

Soong:  No communism! Democracy, yes!

13.07

Colgan:  Charismatic, popular, he readily curried favour with the people with extravagant promises during his time as governor - one eye always on the presidential office. His motto - one handshake equals one vote.

13.45

Wedding

Colgan:  As bizarre as it sounds, tense prostrate relations between Taiwan and China may just serve the interests of the present government of Taiwan. They're more likely to vote conservatively, to stick with the devil they know, not the one they don't. The lead up to the presidential elections in March then, is likely to resemble an increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse.

14.13

Soong

Super:

JAMES SOONG

Presidential Candidate

Soong:  Don't rock the boat but however that doesn't mean we sacrifice the freedom and democracy, and especially the security of the people here in Taiwan. But we have every will to continue the kind of strong and affirm position that is keep free China free, keep free Taiwan free. This is what we want

14.46

Colgan:   Living in the shadow of the mainland has simply become a part of life for the Taiwanese. Though raised so close to the mainland it never occurs to Commander Hung that he might rightfully belong with China. He is Taiwanese through and through.

15.17

Soldiers training on beach

Commander:  Every part, even a small island, we have prepared. We'll not allow the enemy to take away from us.

15.37

Colgan:   Every piece of land you'll keep.

15.45

Commander:  Yes. Never surrender, never give up.

15.47 Ends: 01.15.59.00