Holidays in the Danger Zone Places That Don’t Exist Taiwan This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 Music 10.00.03 Title Page HOLIDAYS in the DANGER ZONE 10.00.11 Music 10.00.12 Simon Reeve There are almost two hundred official countries in the world today but there are dozens more breakaway states determined to be separate but officially not recognised. 10.00.20 Simon Reeve Some survive peacefully with their own borders, money and presidents but others are a magnet for terrorists and weapons smuggling and have armies ready for a fight. 10.00.28 Music 10.00.30 Simon Reeve Welcome to places that don’t exist. 10.00.33 Music 10.00.46 Title Page PLACES THAT DON’T EXIST 10.00.50 Music 10.00.51 Title Page CHINA TAIWAN 10.00.59 Music 10.01.01 Simon Reeve China is now recognised as one of the world’s great powers and the West wants to keep it happy. But it wasn’t always that way. During the time of Chairman Mao the Communists defeated Chinese Nationalists, who then fled to the island of Taiwan and took over. 10.01.15 Simon Reeve Taiwan has since become a stable democracy. But China views it as a renegade province and wants it back. No major nation recognises Taiwan as a separate country. 10.01.27 Simon Reeve Rock had agreed to show me around Beijing. 10.01.35 Simon Reeve What’s this building here? 10.01.37 Rock This is Memory Hall of Mao. 10.01.339 Simon Reeve Chairman Mao? 10.01.40 Rock Of, yes, Mr Mao. 10.01.47 Simon Reeve As we wandered around Tiananmen Square, where demonstrators were massacred in nineteen eighty- nine, guards repeatedly tried to stop us filming. 10.01.55 Aston SIMON REEVE Well they’ve left us to film. Obviously there’s still a lot of sensitivity about what goes on in Tiananmen Square because of, shall we say, its past history. 10.02.07 Simon Reeve Twenty to nine in the morning. Even though it’s early you can see this line here of visitors shuffling forward to see Mao’s tomb. 10.02.20 Simon Reeve Although China is fast becoming an economic superpower, Communists still retain control and the country remains far from democratic. 10.02.33 Simon Reeve Ah, look at this. Beijing two thousand and eight. 10.02.37 Simon Reeve While China is hosting the Olympics in two thousand and eight, Taiwanese politicians have suggested they sever all remaining ties with Beijing that year. But China warns it will attack its renegade province if it tries to breakaway regardless of the Olympics. 10.02.57 Simon Reeve The police have just come to look at our permit which might be a bit of a problem because we’ve passed the time at which we’re supposed to be filming so maybe we, maybe we should politely leave. 10.03.10 Simon Reeve China wants Taiwan back and has said it will use force if necessary. Its army, the largest in the world, has been developing advanced weapons in recent years to take on the sophisticated Taiwanese military. And as I discovered, it’s still hiring. 10.03.23 Simon Reeve This is for, recruitment for the army. 10.03.25 Rock Yes it is. 10.03.27 Simon Reeve And is the performance here recruiting for the army as well? 10.03.30 Rock You can the, see those… 10.03.33 Simon Reeve I can see all the army officers yeah. 10.03.35 Music 10.03.57 Simon Reeve Look at the number of guys who are going up to, to take leaflets. 10.04.02 Band music 10.04.11 Simon Reeve This is a poster that’s by the side of the military display and it’s talking entirely about Taiwan, it says underneath here that Taiwan is part of China, but that some foreign powers are providing weapons and support to Taiwan and trying to keep it away from the Motherland. Having this poster here which also has a picture of the Taiwanese President here is a means of reminding the Chinese people why they need to spend money on the Chinese military if they have to counter this sort of threat. 10.04.41 Music 10.04.43 Simon Reeve But China does appear to be changing, as a visit to the main antiques market in Beijing seems to show. 10.04.49 Music 10.04.51 Simon Reeve This is a shop devoted to Chairman Mao. In the past people would almost have to bow down reverentially to this type of thing and now they just have it as a curiosity. 10.05.06 Music 10.05.09 Simon Reeve This is a poster from the time of the Cultural Revolution saying we must recover Taiwan, we must get it back. 10.05.16 Music 10.05.19 Simon Reeve I left China for Taiwan. 10.05.21 Simon Reeve You can’t actually travel directly from Taiwan to mainland China or from mainland China to Taiwan; you have to travel via somewhere else so we’ve come via Hong Kong. 10.05.34 Simon Reeve Hello. Lovely to meet you. Simon. Hello. Nice to meet you, finally. 10.05.41 Simon Reeve Sen-Lun, a local journalist, was my guide in Taiwan. 10.05.48 Simon Reeve First stop was a Taiwanese air base, bristling with the latest American made fighters, ready to defend against an attack by China. 10.05.59 Simon Reeve Look at the size of this. Warning; do not roll, tumble or drop. Nobody drop it. Oh God they’re carrying it. They’re carrying the missiles. What if one of them slips? Those holes in the ground; what if they fall over? 10.06.23 Sen-Lun I’m really impressed. I didn’t know that we owned one of the best planes in the world. 10.06.30 Simon Reeve You didn’t know. 10.06.31 Sen-Lun I didn’t know. They look very good. 10.06.41 Simon Reeve Have you seen this sign? Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence. Danger. Land mines. 10.06.55 Simon Reeve We were on Jinmen, a Taiwanese island just a few miles off the coast of China. 10.07.02 Simon Reeve Well that’s disappointing, so we can’t go onto the beach. 10.07.06 Sen-Lun Yes, we can. 10.07.08 Simon Reeve Look. It says; Danger, Mines. Our driver says that it’s safe for us to go onto the beach. So we’ll cross fingers and go for a walk on the sand. 10.07.22 Simon Reeve Over there, in the distance, we can see China. It’s a bit misty but you can quite clearly make out the buildings and the town. It looks like a city. 10.07.33 Sen-Lun They are the enemies. Just but they’re so close now. 10.07.39 Simon Reeve Have you, have you seen the mainland before from Taiwan? 10.07.43 Sen-Lun No, this is my first time. 10.07.45 Simon Reeve So you’ve never seen China before? 10.07.48 Sen-Lun I have never seen China from this short distance. 10.07.54 Simon Reeve When you were growing up, what were you being told about them over there? 10.07.58 Sen-Lun Here we grow bananas and we eat bananas and they only get to eat the skins of the banana. 10.08.07 Simon Reeve Don’t know if you can the rusting metal object on top of that building. They had the loudest, largest, loud speakers in the world and they used to broadcast propaganda to the Chinese mainland. What did they used to say? 10.08.22 Sen-Lun Taiwan is a treasure island. 10.08.25 Simon Reeve Taiwan is a treasure island. 10.08.26 Sen-Lun We are free China. We will come to save you from hell. 10.08.35 Simon Reeve The Taiwanese fought artillery duels with the Chinese from here for twenty years. It led to a bizarre agreement where each side shelled the other on alternate days. And they both took Sunday off. 10.08.48 Simon Reeve You can see here, these are the artillery shells that have been fired by the Chinese. Not all of them exploded and some of them actually contained propaganda leaflets so they’re still intact. 10.09.09 Simon Reeve You can see here they’ve marked them up and each of these little bits is going to become a knife. Which he’s making now. 10.09.26 Knife maker Voice over It will take a long time to use up these shells because there were around a million fired from China and each shell can make about sixty knives. So we can make another sixty million; that will take a while. 10.09.38 Simon Reeve Do you ever sell any of these knives to China? 10.09.43 Knife maker Voice over Yes, we’ve been selling the knives to people in Shamen and Shanghai especially in the last two years. People in China don’t feel it’s strange because our knives are famous and they know about them from radio programmes in China. 10.10.01 Simon Reeve The Taiwanese have dug a huge network of tunnels all over this island and this looks like a deep one. 10.10.29 Simon Reeve They’re just showing us what they do; they’re not about to fire on China. At least I hope they’re not. The Taiwanese military will let you see this but they won’t let us show or film what it’s aimed at, which is the Chinese mainland. 10.10.46 Simon Reeve What does this say Sen-Lun? 10.10.47 Sen-Lun It says we will recover the mainland. 10.10.49 Simon Reeve Yeah. We will recover the mainland! Is this still something that the Taiwanese military believe in, do you still think you will take back the mainland? 10.10.58 Soldier It’s not our question. Ok. Not authorised. Politic. 10.11.02 Simon Reeve Ok. That’s a political question. 10.11.04 Soldier Yeah, yeah, yeah. A political question. 10.11.05 Simon Reeve Ok. On a military question. 10.11.07 Soldier But we want peace. We want peace. 10.11.10 Simon Reeve So no more war. 10.11.12 Soldier We hope not. 10.11.15 Simon Reeve These are M60 American tanks. 10.11.18 Simon Reeve Although American doesn’t recognise Taiwan as a separate country, it supplies the island with military equipment. President Bush has said the United States will do whatever it takes to defend Taiwan if the Chinese attack. 10.11.35 Simon Reeve These Taiwanese frogmen are trained to sabotage Chinese warships. They are one of the first lines of defence. 10.11.41 Sen-Lun It does not very often happen that you will come by a dozen, dozens of naked men! 10.11.47 Music 10.12.14 Simon Reeve We left Jinmen and flew to Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. The city is dominated by Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. 10.12.23 Music 10.12.26 Simon Reeve Wow! Now it looks like the tallest building in the world. When you’re right underneath it. Oh, it’s incredible. It looks as though it’s towering over on top of you as well. It actually hasn’t opened yet and you can still smell, in the air there’s still a smell of paint because they’re still building it but hopefully we’re going to be able to go to the top. 10.12.51 Simon Reeve There’s men walking on the roof, can you see on the glass. 10.12.54 Sen-Lun Oh there are little men over there. 10.13.01 Simon Reeve The Taiwanese are good at business; they’ve got the shops open first. 10.13.12 Simon Reeve He’s a very cross security guard, looks very severe. 10.13.16 Sen-Lun Shall we go? 10.13.16 Simon Reeve Yep. Unless we’ve got a pass we’re barely allowed to go up on the escalator. So we’ve got our badge now so we’re allowed to walk around. Without this we would be in sorts of trouble. 10.13.36 Simon Reeve Oh my gosh! Ooohh! 10.13.39 Sen-Lun We are truly are on top of the world. 10.13.42 Simon Reeve We really are. Do you get vertigo? 10.13.45 Sen-Lun No. 10.13.47 Simon Reeve I do. 10.13.50 Simon Reeve I’m now at the top of the tallest building on the entire planet. This is Taipei 101 and this is Taipei; the capital city of Taiwan. One of the most powerful economies in the world. Most states don’t even acknowledge, they don’t have embassies here and they’ve just let the situation between Taiwan and China fester for decades until there’s the possibility of a serious conflict between the two that would affect us all. 10.14.25 Simon Reeve That’s colossal. It’s a big snake. 10.14.36 Simon Reeve I don’t know if you saw the sign here. The snakes sold and cooked at this store are definitely not protected wild animals. 10.14.43 Snake man This is honey and blood. 10.14.45 Simon Reeve Honey and blood. What snake is that from? 10.14.54 Sen-Lun A kind of a cobra. 10.14.56 Simon Reeve It’s from a cobra. 10.14.58 Snake man King cobra. King cobra. 10.15.00 Sen-Lun King cobra. 10.15.04 Simon Reeve I’m a bit wary about this, all right; I’ll just have a little sip. 10.15.09 Simon Reeve It’s ok. It’s good. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. 10.15.20 Simon Reeve And this is a sex shop. Look, you can buy a humming bird vibrator. Ooh! Not you personally I mean. 10.15.26 Music 10.15.33 Simon Reeve On the outskirts of the market business becomes a bit seedier. 10.15.38 Simon Reeve So these are what, brothels or… 10.15.41 Sen-Lun Yeah, these are the places I think. 10.15.44 Simon Reeve The brothels are mainly staffed by girls brought over illegally from the Chinese mainland. 10.15.54 Simon Reeve Later that night Sen-Lun took me to a concert by Six Plus; one of the most popular boy bands in Taiwan. 10.16.00 Music 10.16.08 Simon Reeve Many of the young here used to think of themselves as immigrant Chinese rather than Taiwanese but that’s now changing. 10.16.13 Band member I’m very hungry. 10.16.16 Simon Reeve They’ve obviously done this many times. 10.16.21 Simon Reeve The band’s lyrics are sung in Taiwanese. 10.16.23 Music 10.16.29 Band singing Subtitles Taiwan, beautiful treasure island… Paradise on earth. Taiwanese you should be proud of it… Our homeland, our home. 10.17.02 Simon Reeve The last song seemed to be quite patriotic, can you tell us a little bit about the lyrics and what inspired you with that song? 10.17.12 Band member Voice over In the Taiker song we describe Taiwanese culture to make people identify with being Taiwanese. You know the term Taiker, Taiwan guest, was originally a derogatory name the Chinese gave to the people who came to Taiwan. The reason we use this word is to try and give it a new meaning, to talk about the people who’ve grown up here in Taiwan. 10.17.38 Simon Reeve Wow, you can see lots of girls waiting for the band. True pop stars! 10.18.03 School children Morning! 10.18.04 Simon Reeve Morning. Morning. I like how they get the kids to clean up but can you imagine them trying to do that at a school in, in Britain, the kids would, the kids would revolt. This is how Taiwanese schools start the day. It’s ten to eight, in ten minutes the flag will be raised and already below children are gathering for assembly. 10.18.28 Simon Reeve This used to be the biggest school in the world. 10.18.30 Children singing 10.18.47 Simon Reeve I think it’s incredible how disciplined the kids are. If you look they’ve been told to march, they all march in line and there’s marshall music playing as well. What’s her secret for maintaining order amongst nearly five thousand children? 10.19.04 Teacher Voice over It’s like controlling a line of Taiwanese donkeys. They’re all connected to each other by ropes, so you just have to know which one to pull and the rest will follow. 10.19.20 Sen-Lun This is Taiwanese language lesson. 10.19.21 Simon Reeve Going on now. 10.19.25 Simon Reeve The government used to ban children from speaking in Taiwanese. They wanted them to speak Chinese because they believed one day they’d return to the mainland and take it back from the Communists. 10.19.35 Children perform 10.19.58 Simon Reeve It was all done in Taiwanese. Until a few years ago that would have been illegal but now they’re taught in Taiwanese, they have operas in Taiwanese and they play traditional Taiwanese music. 10.20.13 Children Bye-bye. 10.20.14 Simon Reeve Thank you, bye-bye. 10.20.16 Children Thank you. 10.20.22 Simon Reeve We visited a women’s detention centre housing illegal immigrants from the Chinese mainland who are due to be returned. Many were promised legitimate jobs but when they arrived found themselves forced into prostitution. 10.20.35 Simon Reeve Were you able to work as a babysitter or, or have you had to do other work? 10.20.39 Girl in detention centre Voice over They asked me to do the ladies job to be with the clients, that thing. 10.20.44 Simon Reeve Are you saying you’ve had to work in a brothel? 10.20.48 Girl in detention centre Voice over Yes. We come here because we want to work as babysitters and clerks not this type of work. Most of the people here have been tricked into coming. Like me and some have even been drugged. 10.21.04 Simon Reeve We’re now going to see what they call the baby room, where they keep the babies of women who are being held here. It’s also women have children while they’re here because they’re held for such a long time so they’re there as well. 10.21.19 Simon Reeve These women and their children are only allowed home when China agrees to accept another boatload. Many are held here for months. 10.21.39 Sen-Lun I feel definitely it’s inhuman treatment for them even though the Taiwanese government say they’re providing them with food and care, space and the fact that freedom as a Taiwanese is something I can’t imagine. 10.22.07 Simon Reeve Thank you. Do I put it round? 10.22.19 Simon Reeve The coastguard have kindly said we can come out on the boat with them. They’re looking for smugglers, people smuggling drugs, people smuggling goods every day. They operate twenty-four hours a day. 10.22.36 Simon Reeve Over here, on the horizon you can see Chinese Mainland fishing boats. So they’re right on the edge of where they’re allowed to fish. If they came any further they’d be in Taiwanese waters. 10.22.48 Siren 10.22.54 Simon Reeve We appear to be chasing down a couple of vessels. What’s happening now? 10.23.05 Coastguard Voice over These are tourist boats from China. They want to see the banner that’s on this island. It’s become a tourist spot. They’ve already crossed the dividing line so we’re warning them and sending them back. 10.23.16 Simon Reeve So this sign here says; three principles of the people, to unify China and it’s basically anti-Communist propaganda directed at the Chinese. There’s a Chinese boat, look at the all the Chinese tourists on it. 10.23.31 Simon Reeve We’ve now got a situation where tourist boats are coming across the water to look at the sign but the Taiwanese coastguard is turning them back. What surprises me is the number of people on the boats. I mean the boats were absolutely packed. 10.23.51 Simon Reeve They’re saying; get out, leave our waters. Let’s wave at least. 10.24.09 Simon Reeve Well, we’ve come to what’s supposedly an ancient Taiwanese village, built in the style of how the original inhabitants of Taiwan used to live before the Chinese came over from the mainland in the nineteen forties. But it appears to be a little bit more like a theme park than a cultural heritage attraction. 10.24.30 People screaming 10.24.35 Simon Reeve It seems to provide evidence that the Taiwanese aboriginals had quite an advanced space programme. 10.24.45 Music 10.24.47 Simon Reeve The native inhabitants of Taiwan were treated appallingly by the Chinese Nationalists who retreated to the island after being defeated on the mainland by the Communists. Marginalised for decades many Taiwanese aborigines have now been reduced to working as tourist attractions in theme parks. 10.25.03 Singing 10.25.12 Simon Reeve So here they’ve got a display of human heads. In fact it says here; ‘display frame for enemy heads based on an original structure of about eighteen fifty’. 10.25.25 Sen-Lun You know whose head they hung; Chinese people’s heads who invade their land. 10.25.30 Simon Reeve Really. Well maybe it’s quite appropriate that we have this here then. 10.25.39 Simon Reeve Oh my God! Have you seen these? He’s even got a little head under his arm. 10.25.50 Music 10.25.53 Simon Reeve Most Taiwanese are originally from China but it’s hard for them to visit the mainland. Unlike the real world, in this model park it’s easy to cross from Taiwan to China. 10.26.04 Simon Reeve This is the inland container yard. So what is this supposed to be; the national airport. Ok. That’s enough of that. This is the Sun, this is the Sun Yat Sen National Freeway. Stop laughing! 10.26.27 Music 10.26.29 Simon Reeve While many older Taiwanese still pine for China, the younger generation now thinks of itself as truly Taiwanese and seems in no hurry to unify with the mainland. 10.26.38 Music 10.26.43 Simon Reeve Does your Dad think of himself as being Taiwanese or as Chinese? 10.26.47 Sen-Lun I would say he thinks of himself as Chinese. 10.26.51 Simon Reeve And what do you think of yourself? 10.26.54 Sen-Lun I think of myself as Taiwanese. 10.26.57 Simon Reeve Does the older generation still think it wants to return to China? 10.27.02 Sen-Lun It’s still one of their dreams and one day that dream might just come true. 10.27.07 Simon Reeve You haven’t been to China yourself, I think. 10.27.10 Sen-Lun I have not but this is as far as I can get right now. 10.27.20 Simon Reeve But China remains adamant Taiwan cannot be independent and must reunite with the mainland, as a senior government official back in Beijing made very clear. 10.27.34 Government official Voice over Taiwan has never been a country. It is still not a country. The Chinese people will not allow Taiwan to be separated from the Motherland. The Chinese people will safeguard their sovereignty and territorial integrity and we have the ability to break any intention to make Taiwan independent. 10.28.04 Simon Reeve Is the Chinese government concerned that a conflict between China and Taiwan might involve the United States? 10.28.12 Government official Voice over I don’t believe the American people will be prepared to spill their blood, spill their blood for Taiwanese independence. 10.28.22 Music 10.28.34 End Music Credits 10.28.41 bbc.co.uk/thisworld Written and Presented by SIMON REEVE Dubbing Mixer NIGEL READ VT Editor BOYD NAGLE Colourist ROD HUTSON Graphic Design LYNN WILSON Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG LADONNA HALL MARTHA O’SULLIVAN Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Fixer SEN-LUN YU Assistant Producer/Additional Camera SHAHIDA TULAGANOVA Picture Editor RYSHARD OPYRCHAL Filmed and Directed by IAIN OVERTON 10.29.01 Execution Producer KAREN O’CONNOR Series Producer WILL DAWS BBC © BBC MMV 10.29.03 End BBC Holidays in the Danger Zone: Places That Don’t Exist 1