Taiwan president to visit front-line islands at center of China tensions

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will on Friday make his first visit since taking office in May to the sensitive Kinmen islands that sit next to the Chinese coast and have been the scene of stepped up tensions between Taipei and Beijing.


Taiwan has controlled Kinmen, and the Matsu islands further up the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.


The scene of on-off fighting during the height of the Cold War, China's coast guard has since February conducted regular patrols around Kinmen following the death of two Chinese people on a speedboat which Beijing blamed on Taipei.


Lai's office said on Thursday that he would travel to Kinmen on Friday for events marking the 66th anniversary of a key military clash with Chinese forces, better known internationally as the start of the second Taiwan Strait crisis.


"Located in the first island chain, Taiwan faces the immediate threat of China. But Taiwan will not be intimidated," Lai told a security forum in Taipei on Wednesday.


China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a "separatist." He rejects Beijing's sovereignty saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future, but has also offered talks with China.


Kinmen faces the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou and at its closest is less than two kilometers away from Chinese-controlled territory.


The 1958 crisis was the last time Taiwanese forces battled China on a large scale.  


In August of that year, Chinese forces began more than a month of bombardment of Kinmen, along with Matsu, including naval and air battles, seeking to force them into submission.


Taiwan fought back at the time with support from the United States, which sent military equipment like advanced Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological edge.


The crisis ended in a stalemate, and Taiwan observes Aug. 23 every year as the date it fended off the Chinese attack.


Late Wednesday, Taiwan's defense ministry held a concert in Taipei that celebrated the "glorious" anniversary, with songs about shooting down Chinese MiG fighter jets and bemoaning the "red catastrophe" of communism.


Formerly called Quemoy in English, Kinmen today is a popular tourist destination, though Taiwan maintains a significant military presence.