The classroom is full, there are about 50 students. They listen attentively to the professor who talks about air strikes in Ukraine and how one missile is enough to destroy an entire block. In the projected slide you can see a huge crater in the road. A real image of the battlefield. He continues talking about the defense material that Taiwan has, of American origin. He points with the pointer at a rocket launcher, shows fighter planes, submarines, anti-aircraft defenses. Then he moves on to another point: the invasion, and on the blackboard he projects a map with the “red beaches”, possible landing sites for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA, the Chinese army). He continues with a brief review of military intelligence. There are different levels. The one accessible to ordinary mortals is open sources, OSINT in the jargon (from English open-source intelligence), anyone can lend a hand with this, it can be a “very valuable” resource. It concludes with some notes on morality. “The will to resist is the cornerstone of defense,” he reads in a slide. And so he finishes the first class of the morning at Kuma Academy, a civil defense school located in Taipei that seeks to prepare Taiwanese for a possible conflict with China.
It’s Sunday, election day in Taiwan. Lai Ching-te, the least liked candidate in Beijing, from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has emerged victorious in the presidential elections on the self-governed island that the People’s Republic claims as an inalienable part of its territory. But here everyone has woken up early to attend this Sunday course, made up of four modules: after this first introduction to “modern war”, there are two hours on “disinformation and cognitive operations”, which will be followed by some practices in “first aid and homeostasis”, in which they will learn how to bandage and apply tourniquets, and an “evacuation planning” workshop.
Among the students, young people predominate, but there is everything. The reasons for attending the course are similar. “I feel that the Chinese Communist Party wants to use force to unify Taiwan,” explains Anita, 23, a sociology student. Many prefer not to be photographed or give their name. This is her case. “I think that [esta reunificación] “It is a potential threat to my way of life and my family,” he adds. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but I want to have the right preparation for that moment.”
Melissa Lyn, 70 years old, born in Taiwan but living in the United States, has returned to the island to vote in the elections, and has signed up for the course because she is interested in learning about technology, she is interested in understanding young people better, those who consider vulnerable to misinformation. Alan, 27, contributes: “I want to learn from professionals how I can protect myself and my family.” He did the four months of Taiwanese mandatory military service (recently increased to one year), but believes that training “is not enough.”
Bear with bulletproof vest and a rifle
Founded in 2019, around 30,000 people have already passed through the Kuma school, according to its own data. The majority of students are between 30 and 35 years old, and more women (65%) than men attend. The logo of the academy — whose name in Mandarin means “black bear,” a species typical of Taiwan — is a bear wearing a bulletproof vest holding a rifle. One of the slogans is the well-known Latin maxim: “If you want peace, prepare for war” (if you want peace, prepare for war).
“The Taiwanese don’t really care about civil defense. Most do not believe war will happen. You can feel that people live very peacefully in Taiwan,” says Puma Shen, 41, one of the academy’s founders. The idea, he says, is to ensure that there are 1% of inhabitants who understand the risk and who know how to protect themselves and their family. “That would help our nation. Because if war happens, everyone can panic a little. But if you have someone with knowledge of what to do, it would ease the anxiety.”
Shen, an associate professor of Criminology at National Taipei University and a specialist in disinformation, says that the easiest way for China to “invade” Taiwan is for Beijing to make sure that 40% of Taiwanese think that “it is okay” to form part of the People’s Republic. In the event of conflict, he continues, a critical mass would “surrender” immediately and “could end the war in a week.” The academy’s co-founder takes these things very seriously. He is convinced that there is already a war underway. On his backpack he carries a patch with a skull, the emblem of the National Anti-Communist Salvation Army (a now defunct command that was under the orders of Taipei in its fight against the People’s Republic), and he also presides over Doublethink Lab, an organization specialized in Chinese “cyber armies.” During the electoral campaign, misinformation has been a battlefield, the Government of Taiwan has denounced.
With his hair messy, as if he had just woken up, Shen says that it has been an exhausting few days. He has run for the legislative elections for the PPD (when he gives the interview there are still a couple of days left before the polls open; he will finally be elected). His popularity among young people is undeniable. And his candidacy demonstrates the academy’s ties with the ruling party, which has revalidated a victory after eight years in power. It is the first time that a party has achieved a third consecutive mandate since the first democratic elections in 1996.
In 2022, the school also received the support of Robert Tsao, a wealthy magnate in the microchip sector, the island’s strategic resource. Tsao assured that he would allocate 1 billion Taiwan dollars (about 29 million euros) to train three million “black bear warriors” in civilian tactics in the next three years, and some 300,000 “shooters,” according to Taipei Times. Shortly afterward he announced more donations to finance the development of drones for military use.
In Kuma, they only train in civil matters. They do not do shooting practice of any kind. From time to time they organize macro exercises outdoors, with dozens of people, in which they simulate an attack with wounded people who must be evacuated. Next Saturday they have one in which they expect to have a hundred participants. That is what a “civil defense” consists of, explains Shen, knowing how to save oneself, carry out a psychological defense, resist, protect the community. The founder considers it necessary to “convey the message that China really represents a threat.” “Talking about the possibility of war, talking about preparation, is the only way for people to understand our situation.” “The best way to protect our country is to make sure people know that we should not sign a peace agreement with China. That is the main objective of our organization,” he adds.
The professor of the course on modern warfare considers it important to teach “the global position” of Taiwan, understand the “capabilities” of the island, who are its allies and who are its enemies, and also assume the growing power of China. Years ago, says this military strategy expert who prefers to keep his identity hidden, Beijing’s “threats” were “empty slogans.” Today, with the development of the People’s Republic, the tables have turned. It is crucial to understand this and at the same time the Taiwanese defense ability to “increase confidence.” “We are a country that loves peace,” he adds. “We do it to continue living a normal life.”
“We would like to protect Taiwanese democracy, and we feel there is a lot of pressure coming from China,” says Kang Xue-er, a 66-year-old retiree who worked in a department store and came to the course with her daughter. She believes that the People’s Republic “is brainwashing” voters of the nationalist Kuomintang party, traditionally closer to Beijing. Her candidate, Hou Yu-ih, came second in the presidential election, but the KMT won the legislative election. Her daughter, Chen Han-ling, 36, is an artist and manga drawing teacher. She adds that Taiwanese must “be prepared, be aware” of an eventual conflict. She is impressed to see them, ordinary people with normal lives, a few moments later learning on any given Sunday that hemorrhages “in excessive quantities, cause shock” and, if the bleeding is abundant, greater than 2,000 cubic centimeters, the heart and respiratory rate increase, there is anxiety, loss of consciousness. The teacher teaches how to cut it by pressing hard with a bandage on her imaginary wound. Next, they prepare to apply a tourniquet.
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