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People on Frontline Taiwanese Island Unafraid as China Tensions Escalate

Ralph Jennings

   JINCHENG TOWNSHIP, TAIWAN - Peggy Lee and her high school classmate,
   Lin Chiao-yin, screamed in pleasure this week on a shaded cliff along a
   sun-soaked beach on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen as they practiced
   street dancing and chatted about the hottest tunes. Sixteen year old
   Lin was taking a break from tending to her father's beachside café.

   An expired military tank sat right below them on the beach, and 15
   kilometers beyond that loomed the easily visible high-rise skyline of
   Xiamen, a major city in southeastern China. The café operates on the
   roof of a camouflage-painted army fortress that once scanned the sea
   for Chinese artillery, but Lee and Lin weren't scared.

   "We find it pretty over there, but there's actually no sense of
   distance," Lin said, gesturing toward China. "That's because we're used
   to it."

   These classmates reflect views common among the 127,000 people of
   Kinmen County, a jurisdiction covering the two inhabited Taiwanese-held
   islets closest to Taiwan's old military rival China.

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