May Every Islander Become This Island's Sturdy Shield
TC Lee | Chairman of CDAT, Founder of the Ganghu Civil Defense Team
On the one-year anniversary of the 726 recall vote, Ganghu published a series of retrospective posts about the road from the recall to civil defense, and invited members to share their own perspectives on the past year.
The Taiwan Communal Table curatorial team and the North Coast Democratic Resilience Association chose the window between 7/26 and 8/23 — the two dates of last year’s recall votes — to hold the “Letter to Taiwan” exhibition.
Beyond the static exhibition, a series of talks tried to approach the subject from different angles and open up a dialogue with society.
The Ganghu Civil Defense Team was honored to be invited to the hidden session on 8/21, “Island Shield,” to talk about what “whole-of-society resilience” means, and about the possibilities for civil defense between government and citizens.
For those who’ve been in it a long time, civil defense is a preparation that never finishes.
For those who haven’t, it can sound distant, unfamiliar, remote.
But it’s really an extension, into everyday life, of the work of resisting China.
In politics, it takes the shape of recall votes, of election mobilization, of showing up for your candidate.
And in the days between elections that come once every two years, aside from following current events, what civil defense is working toward is everything else — the small, cumulative work of protecting the way we live.
Looking back over the past decade or so, it’s really been the same thing all along.
During the Sunflower Movement, it was blocking the trade-in-services pact.
During the anti-media-monopoly protests, it was blocking media from being bought out.
The 2020 and 2024 presidential and legislative elections, the 2025 mass recall — the theme was always clear: protect Taiwan.
Some call this fear-mongering, but the plain reality is that our neighbor genuinely wants to swallow us.
These have all been political paths, and effective ones.
A lot of people got here by walking that road. So did I.
But starting in 2024, we started seeing something else.
When the Legislative Yuan got locked up, the path through the system got a lot harder to walk.
Budgets got cut, bills to protect Taiwan got blocked, procedures got routed around.
The 2025 mass recall was our attempt to use democratic means to pull things back — and in the end, not a single legislator was recalled.
What if the political path stops working?
Political mobilization still has to continue.
Keep voting in every election, keep standing at the intersections that need people, keep persuading whoever can be persuaded.
But at the same time, we also need to start putting in the work on everything outside of politics.
Get prepared. Build resilience.
And doing thorough preparation carries another layer of meaning.
It lets the other side know we are preparing in earnest.
A society that has genuinely prepared makes an adversary think twice before acting — it’s not so easy to act on impulse.
In prison, it’s the weak who get targeted, so everyone tries to bulk up.
Taiwanese people have a lot of lovable virtues, but we often forget there’s a bully right next door — we need to bulk up too.
Civil defense is exactly that: making every part of our lives stronger, more able to handle whatever comes.
Civil defense and political participation aren’t in conflict.
Staffing a petition booth at an intersection, casting your vote, running logistics for a candidate — these are all acts of resistance against China.
Civil defense is the same thing, in its everyday-life version: learn a skill, set aside some supplies, get to know the people around you.
Compared to an election, it’s not exciting, and there’s no moment when the votes get counted.
But it’s solid, and it doesn’t reset to zero just because someone takes office or steps down.
Thanks to “Letter to Taiwan” for hosting this talk and giving these words a place to be said out loud.
Occasions like this don’t just happen on their own — someone has to be willing to make them happen.
If you’ve voted, stood at an intersection, or tried to persuade a family member for Taiwan’s sake these past few years, then you’re already doing this.
Civil defense just extends it to all the days that aren’t election days.
Come join us. Become a preparer.