With such short distances—Penghu is just eighty-six miles from the Chinese coast, less than the distance from Florida to Cuba—Taiwanese forces must train to respond within minutes. To make them more difficult targets for any Chinese attack, Taiwanese military units are deliberately dispersed across the islands. I found similar urgency at the nearby Magong Air Base, home to a rotating squadron of “indigenous defense fighters,” the jets that form the backbone of the Taiwanese Air Force. There, squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Pi Shih-Chuan—who, with Maverick-like bravado, shared his call
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