Provocative.
Days ago, it was reported that China’s robust People’s Liberation Army conducted beach invasion exercises on Fujian island, which happens to be very near Taiwan.
According to official Chinese accounts the action involved “shock” troops, sappers and boat specialist who were “divided into multiple waves to grab the beach and perform combat tasks at different stages.”
Video was released of soldiers throwing smoke grenades and breaking through barbed wire. Digging trenches in the sand etc.
The war-game was extremely provocative as, over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that Taiwan will be “reunified” with the mainland.
Worrisome but, as a surfer, I was curious as to Fujian’s potential and quickly searched “surf Fujian.”
Surfline and Magic Seaweed had it listed but no information. Surf-forecast, though, provided the gold.
Funingwan in Fujian is a reasonably exposed beach break that has inconsistent surf with no particular seasonal pattern. Offshore winds are from the west with some shelter here from north winds. Short period wind swells are the rule and the best wave direction is from the east southeast. The beach break offers both left and right hand waves. Crowds are never a problem here. Water quality is rather poor here.
It sounds lightly depressing so I then conducted an image search for “sad surfer.”
And look at that. Top row, fifth picture from left, Derek Rielly spraying all the mopes.
Very cool
What was I writing about again?
World War III?
Oh yeah.
Do you think the west will care if/when China gets grabby or will there be much hand-wringing followed by Hong Kong-sized shrugs?
More, I suppose, as the story develops.
