As Nancy Pelosi set off for her historic visit to Taiwan this week, videos on Chinese social media began circulating showing convoys of armoured vehicles moving along beaches in the port city of Xiamen, on China’s south-east coast.
Less than 5km away, on the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen, life continued as normal, even as China announced a series of unprecedented military drills that Taiwan’s defence ministry says amount to a blockade. Children played in the streets, students posed for graduation photos and buses of tourists continued to wind their way around the islands’ attractions.
