Voting begins on Saturday in the most closely watched election in Taiwan since its first in 1996 amid the existential threat of China
In the final days of an election campaign that has been framed as a choice between “war and peace” or “democracy and autocracy”, a nationwide air raid warning over a satellite launch from China could well have caused panic.
Instead, the piercingly loud bilingual presidential alert prompted confusion, mistranslating the Chinese word for satellite into “missile” in English, and anger, as opposition politicians quickly accused the government of fear mongering days before an election that will have far-reaching implications beyond Taiwan.
