cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45994892

• Taiwan starts handing out copies of new civil defence handbook
• Taiwan faces growing military pressure from China
• Japan PM assures support of Taiwan in case of Chinese military aggression

China is the real regional “troublemaker”, a senior Taiwanese security official said on Friday, personally giving out copies of a new civil defence handbook the government is sending to every household on the island as China tensions rise.

The handbook, unveiled in September, includes for the first time instructions on what to do if citizens encounter enemy soldiers and stresses that any claims of Taiwan’s surrender should be considered false.

[…]

It marks Taiwan’s latest effort to prepare its population for crises ranging from natural disasters to a Chinese invasion, as Beijing steps up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over the democratically-governed island.

China has this month also been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

Lin Fei-fan, Deputy Secretary-General of Taiwan’s National Security Council who has overseen the handbook initiative, told reporters in a Taipei residential area as he handed out copies to residents that Japan had Taiwan’s highest-level support.

“The Chinese communists are the real troublemaker in geopolitics of the entire region,” he said.

“What we are doing now is to ensure that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait can be continued by all means necessary and that the status quo will not be unilaterally destroyed.”

[…]