Video shows historical reenactment, not genuine Taiwanese army drill
Taiwan faces the constant threat of invasion by China, but footage of actors loading up an artillery weapon has circulated in false posts claiming it shows a genuine Taiwanese military drill. The performance demonstrating the use of a howitzer takes place in a former military facility that has since been converted into a tourist attraction.
“Taiwanese soldiers stationed on Kinmen Island are practising how to attack the Chinese mainland,” reads a November 3, 2024 post on X, referring to the Taipei-administered islands just a few kilometres from the Chinese coastline (archived link).
Screenshot of the false post, captured on March 3, 2025
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since Mao Zedong’s communist army won a civil war and sent the opposition nationalist forces fleeing across the strait in 1949 (archived link).
Beijing has maintained ever since that the island is part of its territory, and has not ruled out using force to bring it under control.
The video also surfaced in similar posts on X and Douyin as Beijing has ramped up deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan (archived link).
But it shows a reenactment of how a howitzer is used at a tourist attraction in Kinmen.
Keyword searches found an October 2021 report from Chinese broadcaster Phoenix TV about mainland Chinese women with Taiwanese spouses who worked as historical reenactors performing for tourists in Kinmen (archived link).
The performance seen in the circulating video corresponds to the one in the Phoenix TV report.
Further searches found the performances are held at Kinmen’s Shishan Howitzer Front, which was converted into a tourist site in 2011, according to a Kinmen County Department of Tourism website (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of a false X post (L) and a corresponding image from the Kinmen County Department of Tourism website
The tourist site displays a howitzer that Taiwanese forces used in 1958 as Mao’s communist forces conducted an intense bombardment of Kinmen. Artillery drill performances are held daily except Thursdays.
AFP also published a video featuring the performance on October 30, 2020.
AFP has debunked misinformation stemming from cross-strait tensions here, here and here.
