How Taiwan's Model Soldiers Pointed Guns At China From Secret Bunkers

Sitting on the front line between Taiwan and China, the island of Kinmen is the last place where the two engaged in major fighting, in 1958 at the height of the Cold War, and where memories of war are burned into minds decades later.

Chen Ing-wen strides up to a rocky outcrop some 3 km (1.9 miles) from China's coast on Taiwan-controlled Kinmen island and demonstrates how as a soldier he used to shoot from there at Chinese trawlers that got too close.

"It was just to scare them - but they weren't scared," said Chen, 50, who did his military service on Kinmen from 1991 to 1993. "We were not trying to kill them, just warn them away."

Sitting on the front line between Taiwan and China, Kinmen is the last place where the two engaged in major fighting, in 1958 at the height of the Cold War, and where memories of war are burned into minds decades later - large model soldiers point guns at China from some old bunkers.

China views Taiwan as part of its territory, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing's control. A recent spike in tensions, with China's air force carrying out four days of mass incursions into Taiwan's air defence zone starting on October 1, caused alarm in Western capitals and Taipei that Beijing may be planning something more dramatic.