The New York Times
Date: Sept. 2, 2018
By: Chris Horton

A woman digging for clams in Kinmen County, Taiwan, among antitank obstacles installed long ago to defend against China. The skyline of Xiamen, China, is in the distance. Credit: Bryan Denton for The New York Times

KINMEN COUNTY, Taiwan — The islands of Kinmen County, and the Nationalist troops stationed there, withstood artillery shelling from China long after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war.

Today, relations between China and Kinmen, just miles apart, are very different indeed.

Kinmen, about twice the size of Manhattan, has been governed from Taiwan since the defeated Nationalists fled China for the islands in 1949. But Taiwan’s main island is 140 miles away, while China looms visibly in the near distance. That distance is narrowing — both literally and figuratively.

A new airport for the Chinese city of Xiamen is being built just north of Kinmen, on an island three miles away, and land reclamation for that project will bring Chinese territory almost a mile closer.    [FULL  STORY]