Traffic stopped and roads emptied in northern Taiwan on Thursday for the new government's first air raid drill, a public reminder that China could attack despite a recent thaw in relations.
Sirens sounded at 2:30 p.m. local time in seven counties and cities, a cue for vehicles to move to the sides of roads and pedestrians to wait in back streets, all practice for a possible attack. Sirens 30 minutes later gave an all-clear to flood the roads and sidewalks again.
So it was day instead of night drills. Actually, I'm fairly impressed at the level of effort. Shutting down cities for even a short time is actually a pretty good level of commitment to defending their island democracy from the looming Chinese threat.
