China turns firepower to soft power to try to win tiny Taiwan-held island

A reporter takes pictures of a soldier during the annual Han Kuang military exercise in Kinmen, Taiwan, September 7, 2015. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

KINMEN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Soldiers on the tiny Taiwan-held island of Kinmen regularly conduct military drills repelling amphibious attacks by Chinese Communist troops from the mainland, but the problem may soon be free-for-all landings of Chinese shoppers and businessmen.

The war games are a reminder that this place is the front line between China and Taiwan where beaches were mined and shots traded up until as recently as the mid-1970s, and that China has not renounced force to ensure it gains control of a territory it considers its own.