family a these correct only is with people fleeing extreme dreams. rough getting 200 people around the world. more than 300000000 people are seeking refuge as to why? because no one should have to flee. make up your own mind. d. w. made for mines. ah, it up, it is aisha coming up today, counting down for the winter olympics in china. people in beijing and the athletes are bracing for the opening of the games on friday. what will the sport be

overshadowed by concerns over china's human rights record and fears about the spread of coven? 19 plus. ah! submarines in taiwan are going to extraordinary meds to join an elite force of progress report on their ordeal. and why ty paid has decided it is time to bolster its military defenses. ah, i'm british manager, welcome to d, w and news asia. glad you could join us. chinese president, she jin being says he's country will do its best to deliver a quote, simple, safe and splendid games. he was speaking one day ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2022 beijing winter olympics. the games will be held amidst

a diplomatic boycott by the us and some allies over china's human rights record. efficient delegations from the u. s. australia and the u. k. will not be at the games, but their athletes will be and all of them will be competing in a closed bubble. they'll be physically kept away from beijing residents to prevent the spread of over 19. ah, it's already party time on the lakes at beijing biggest park kits of all ages are showing of their skills as they warm up for the winter games. but aren't it are not well, i'm certainly looking forward to his patients. a city that has hosted both the summer and winter olympics, which is a rare achievement, but there will be a lot less spectacle than at the cities. 2008 summer games. this time, the national stadiums operating a tightly controlled closed loop cove at 19 system to make sure overseas ethylene and their teams won't have any contact with the public. there'll be no cheering

inside the when use eva games organizers cancelled public ticket sales. following the resurgence of the virus and the capital, the authorities have ramped up testing entitled social distancing measures, leading to hard times for some in the city to her java gate digger. the government has interrupted live venue. they've had to close and f monitor these venues closely . so it's been very difficult to keep the music industry running normally. it's not just covered, that's been dampening the olympic spirits, the u. s. and some of its allies are stating the diplomatic boycott over the severe human rights abuses in china's far west. and since young region, china has dismissed the boy court as political grandstanding and says it won't affect the game success. the chinese media is obviously very, very different to see what people are saying in the foreign media. so a lot of this topic, the, a lot of these topics just simply on reported. and there were, there wouldn't be a huge topic about and the ina petite, potential diplomatic boycotts of,

of the olympics. that's not gonna be a front, a top story. i hear in china. i don't think of a story at all. local headlines are focusing on china's middle hopes. instead. it's fusing, it's largest ever been to olympics every team and competing in all the events for the 1st time. one of the stars of the show is 18 year old rooster's year. i lincoln born to a chinese mother and american father. she switched allegiance from the u. s. a 3 years ago to represent china. i was in shanghai or a couple of weeks ago and i saw her face on 3 billboards in the space her about an hour. i think, oh advertising different brands. she's also captured the attention of the countries legions of amateurs or has you or not? i like her very much, she's not only good at skiing, but also speak, spoke chinese and english, and as well educated as all we expect her to weeks laurie to the country and achieve a good result, which president seizing thing says he wants to games to inspire 300000000 chinese

people take up winter sports even if this year's game saves organizational obstacles. china could have plenty to celebrate the many been to lynn hicks to come and eat others. jonathan crane is in a beijing. from the olympics. we asked him to tell us about his experience of being in the closed loop bubble. and if he had the feeling that beijing had learned anything from tokyo staging of the summer games last year. i think in many ways, tokyo was the blueprint and beijing has taken that and they will say improved on it . the bubble is certainly fostering to hear that forget china has a 0 care cove policy. it wants to stop the spread of the virus, eradicates it completely. so what that means in practice for these olympics are we are completely sealed off. whereas in tokyo, there was a bubble, the bubble load had holes, local staff could come and go, and all participants could actually leave the bubble after 2 weeks. we have to be within if the entire time of the olympics were closely watches, it's impossible to,

to leave it really was sealed in at our hotel. it's great. it off, it really hits home that day only opens to allow transport see to come and go. and i see president from his back today. they've been having that big meeting today. he was talking about the olympic ideal of them. ellen pep rally is the set. the lympics is about always building bridges, never erecting wolf. but i think the irony of that probably hasn't been lost on the people here. nor has the irony been lost on the people of taiwan. far from building bidders. china has been increasingly threatening its neighbor with its military. the numbers of chinese air force incursions into ty, one's air defense on have gone up as, as the rhetoric from beijing, china use taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be re united with the mainland. of this has forced taiwan to double down on modernizing its own military. more than that in a moment. but 1st a look at how some members of taiwan elite in phoebe as recognizance and patrol unit. the e r p are being tested to see if they are good enough to joined the marine corps.

elite force of frogman. ah, this is the final exercise of a brutal training course. the marines call it the road to heaven. getting over the line is not to be taken for granted. more than half of the $31.00 candidates failed to finish. this 26 year old graduate says he knows what it takes to succeed tins and in the 1st 3 days are very exhausting. but during the last few days, it gets better after your body gets used to it. but of course you have to rely on your willpower and determination. the training is designed to test the stamina of the marines and to eliminate those unable to withstand the pressure. all of those taking part volunteered to do so some out of

a feeling of patriotism. others are keen to push themselves to their limited, you know, doing exercises include spending hours in the water after having had very little food or sleep for days. as well as the hotel hunger, so the main reason for being so harsh to them is to train their will power because our unit belongs to the special forces. so in times of war, we need to have stronger will power and better physical abilities than others. you at san francisco. the frogman of the elite force are among those who would be deployed in the event of any conflict with china, which has been increasing military pressure on taiwan of late they would be expected to scout enemy locations and call in attack. for such tasks, the train to say the men need to be able to cope with the harshest of conditions

are joining me now for more is when t's song. he is a lecturer in taiwan study that australia's in you college of asia and the pacific . and he joined me now from taipei. mr. song, how real is the fear of a chinese invasion. ready or attack in taiwan? well, i think while people do take the possibility of a military confrontation with china seriously, i think over time people have been simply ling under the possibility or the shadow of a chinese military confrontation scenario for easily over a quarter century. by now, so i think over time people just begin to try to tune it out and leave their lives for the most part. and i think for the general public that the sense they have, obviously for the gum and leaders and those why in the military they do, they are being a lot more proactive in terms of finding out are ways to improve the capacity and mitigate risk of confrontation. with china, speaking of the responsibility really,

i mean we look at military modernization that i want is undertaking. i wonder if that is the corner stone of taiwan strategy to counter the threat from china? yes, i mean i've entire one's strategy towards managing military threats on china are essentially 2 pronged. you can talk about a internal mainstream. one is ation of power. one's forces itself as well as more international diplomatic endeavors. so just to talk about the 1st point at how one's own on thomas mean to capacity. title one obviously knows that china is easily like $5060.00 times bigger than itself in population terms. so time wise, not going to try to spend china a dollar for dollar in terms of military procurement. instead, what tylen tries to do is to find ways that you can cultivate nish capacities. so we'll talk about, for example, these thing co as the metric warfare ability,

where i want to try to increase things like me. so launchers, more defensive, a ballistic missile defense systems see mine. and i'll always like that where taiwan can kind of get defensive capacity on the cheap. and in addition to that as well, there is something to be said about finding ways to boost one's own reserve forces . and just at the end of last year, a tile on what's going ahead in terms of, of doing reform to his reform. there is there for the structure. so asked, is there a park part of that music pack capacity in the civilian everyday economy? so as to keep them with a stable defense minister to court chang last year said in october, that tensions with china out there was in for decades. this type a, c, these are getting worse this year. what i pay,

i certainly believe that is alum. one need to take it even more seriously than you has to you had in the past. i'll say that in terms of actual degree of threat assessment, taiwan is largely alert, but not alarmed at the moment. the primary reason being that in order for china to launch a successful invasion of high one, china steel has a long way to go in terms of developing the and the beast landing capacity and transportation capacity across the highway straight before a actual capacious to happen. so in that front tire one is still relatively confident, nice able to hold of a chinese offensive. but meanwhile, all the intensification of military plains, chinese warplane, knew how much straight to create greater risk of escalation as was accidental escalation when things could get out of control. we leave it there for the time

being. thank you so much for joining us today of anti so from the in your college of asia and the pacific. thank you so much and that's it for today on the program. does of course move from the region and more about that, the tension between china and taiwan on our website, d, w dot com, forward slash asia. and as ever, you can, of course, always follow us on facebook and twitter of your back again, tomorrow. at the same time, we will see you then. bye bye. ah, what secrets lie behind these was discovered new adventures in 360 degrees.

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