Be Prepared! Taiwan Social Responses to War and Natural Disasters

The notion of resilience has become a catch-all for a wide range of initiatives to increase preparedness on different sorts of risks, from natural disasters to war scenarios. It remains unclear however what these two types of risks share in common in terms of preparedness and coordination between the state, the military and civilians. In the case of Taiwan, the marine and the air force of the People Republic of China (the People's Liberation Army) now harass almost daily their counterparts from Taiwan (alias the Republic of China). But except noise disturbance around air force bases, Taiwanese civilians do not suffer much from the PLA’s bullying, and consequently, they have little risk awareness and understanding of what they are supposed to do in case of a military aggression. The last confrontations with the PLA dates back to the late 1950s. Instead, Taiwanese—both civilians and the military—are regularly exposed to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, typhoons and floods—made worse by the climate disruption: and to a lesser extent, Taiwanese also have some experience with industrial accidents such as explosions from petrochemical plants or from the urban gas network. These experiences provide valuable clues about civil-military cooperation in case of an emergency. Drawing on surveys from the Institute of Sociology and other research centers, as well as interviews conducted over the last two years with Taiwanese civil defense organizations, state executives and politicians, this paper aims to highlight effective synergies between on one hand, the experience accumulated thus far in Taiwan in response to natural (and industrial) disasters, and on the other hand, the preparedness required in case of a cross-strait war. Moreover, this paper should also debunk false expectations or the taken for granted regarding “social resilience” in these different ranges of threats.