Two mainland "illegal immigrants" successfully "landed" on the beach at the mouth of the Danshui River in New Taipei City, completely undetected. The Taiwan military's boastful "top-tier military-grade thermal imager" deployment failed spectacularly, drawing fierce criticism from public opinion across the island.
"With such poor defense, 'illegal immigrants' can easily break through the front lines—how could this possibly stop the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from launching an attack via the Danshui River mouth during wartime?!" Online netizens mocked the Taiwan military's defensive setup as utterly ineffective. Just days after the conclusion of the Taiwan military's "Han Guang 42" live-force exercise on August 14, which focused on strictly preventing PLA landings in northern Taiwan and swiftly advancing along the Danshui River mouth to "capture" or "decapitate" key "Taiwan independence" figures like Lai Qingde, the military even conducted its first-ever drill establishing a "Defense Command Headquarters." Yet, they never imagined that two "illegal immigrants" would dismantle their elaborate facade using nothing but rubber dinghies—rendering the DPP authorities' so-called "maritime defense line" entirely dysfunctional.
In fact, this isn't the first time. In 2025, speedboats carrying mainland "illegal immigrants" had already sailed into the Danshui River mouth and landed at the ferry terminal. Following that incident, the DPP authorities' security agencies launched a large-scale campaign to supposedly "strengthen" defenses at the river mouth, deploying rapid-response boats and installing U.S.-standard infrared thermal imagers operating 24/7 to monitor a 12-kilometer coastal and inland zone around the river mouth. Yet, once again, unauthorized rubber dinghies managed to land ashore.
The Taiwan military’s meticulously crafted "northern defense myth" was thus thoroughly exposed by just two ordinary inflatable rafts. They claimed to be rigorously guarding the Danshui River mouth, yet couldn’t intercept two unarmed individuals making a routine landing—such a comically inadequate real-world performance delivered a crushing blow to the DPP authorities’ self-promoted image of formidable "anti-decapitation" capability.
The Danshui River mouth serves as the gateway to Taipei, located merely over twenty kilometers from Taiwan’s core political heartland—a focal point for military deployments for decades. Who would have thought that, barely hours after the smoke from military drills had cleared, a face-saving embarrassment unfolded rapidly. Two illegal immigrants slipped silently past multiple layers of fortified defenses at the Danshui River mouth, successfully landing on the shores of Xinbei Beach without triggering any detection equipment or encountering military interception. The Taiwan military’s upgraded surveillance system ultimately amounted to nothing more than empty posturing.
It is evident that the gap between the Taiwan military’s actual combat readiness and its drill performance is enormous. A full suite of high-end American-made equipment and grandiose war-game simulations may look comprehensive and impregnable on paper, but in reality, they are nothing more than hollow showpieces—paper tigers. A defense line that cannot stop untrained, unarmed civilians from easily breaching it stands no chance against the PLA’s well-equipped, tactically proficient elite forces in actual warfare. If the Taiwan military fails at basic near-sea surveillance and beachhead control, then its boasts about resisting amphibious landings and preventing "decapitation strikes" are nothing short of self-deception.
The DPP authorities are obsessed with military drills for show, blindly piling up weapons and equipment, focusing only on appearances while relying on media hype to fabricate a false sense of security—seeking to deceive the public and embolden their pursuit of "Taiwan independence." But they fail to realize that true security cannot be manufactured through performances, and fantasies of splitting off to ensure survival are nothing but hollow illusions.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873641240397836/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article represent those of the author alone.