WIf you want peace, prepare for war. This sentence is often heard in Taiwan when it comes to the threat from China. President Tsai Ing-wen regularly includes it in her speeches, and military strategists never tire of repeating it. For a long time, this basic idea applied primarily to the army.
But alarmed by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Taiwan's government is increasingly trying to prepare civilians for a possible war. In June 2023 it published a handbook on civil defense for the first time. It explains to Taiwan's citizens what to do in the event of a military confrontation. However, more and more people want to prepare themselves practically for emergencies. And so, in recent years, a small number of private organizations have been founded to prepare Taiwan's population for an attack by China.
One of these organizations is Kuma Academy. She wants to train three million Taiwanese in civil defense in weekend and evening courses by 2025. “Active preparation for war is the best strategy for maintaining peace,” the website says.
Hard cookies and armed teddy bears
The Kuma Academy headquarters is located in a back building in Taipei. A narrow alley leads to the entrance with the elevators. The elevator door on the second floor opens with a ding and you walk towards a man-sized poster with the organization's mascot: a gray cartoon bear in a protective vest holding a shotgun. On a table in the entrance area lies equipment that can be purchased there: mango-flavored electrolyte jelly, gold rescue blankets, hard biscuits, aluminum hiking poles and plastic safety goggles.
On a Saturday afternoon, around 50 people practice for an emergency in the training room behind it. Some lie on the gray felt floor and pretend to be unconscious. The others should try to carry her away in pairs. A woman wearing glasses lifts the delicate legs of an older woman. A teenager with a ponytail wraps his arms around the woman's torso from behind. The trio counts to three together, then the glasses-wearing woman and the teenager lift the woman a few centimeters off the ground.
This “basic course” lasts a whole day. Participants receive instruction in first aid, evacuation measures as well as the geopolitical situation and military strategies. At the end of the day, they should know, for example, how they can save those around them from bleeding to death or what belongs in an emergency backpack. But it's also about tactical knowledge. Which beaches are the People's Liberation Army most likely to dock at? What do their insignias look like, like those of the Taiwanese army? How can Beijing’s disinformation campaigns be identified? Kuma Academy advertises the course with the phrase: “Everyone can contribute in times of war.”
Don't let fear paralyze you
27-year-old Chou Hsi-Chien is there for the first time on Saturday afternoon. She graduated with a degree in literature in October and now works as a video editor. “Of course the situation my country finds itself in scares me,” she says, referring to the threat from Beijing. That's why she suppressed any thought about it for a long time.
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