For more than a week, from train stations to supermarkets, almost every corner of Taiwan has been touched by the island's annual military drills.
At a primary school in New Taipei City, children on summer camp played badminton inside a sports hall while just outside, soldiers fired cannons and rifles.
They were rehearsing a hypothetical battle against China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).
"I was responsible for providing cover from enemy fire," said soldier Zhu Yuwei.
"The live training with blanks felt much more intense and realistic compared to the regular training we do at the base."
While the scenario feels scripted, the proximity of the kids watching on as red smoke billows from what is normally their school basketball courts also drives home what is really at stake for Taiwan as it comes under increasing pressure from Beijing.
The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan is a province of China, and continues to insist it will one day join the People's Republic, refusing to renounce the use of force to achieve that goal.
Polls have shown the majority of Taiwanese people want to maintain the status quo.
In 2024, pro-sovereignty President Lai Ching-te was elected, despite Beijing's protestations that he is a "dangerous separatist".
While life in Taiwan largely continues as normal, weeks like this are a reminder Beijing's threat constantly looms.
Depending on how long these tensions continue, the kids watching the drills may one day be called up to defend their home.
This year, the government has beefed up these annual military drills called Han Kuang, which have been running since the 1980s.
They are going for twice as long as usual.
In what Defence Minister Wellington Koo said was the biggest mobilisation of reservists during these drills, more than 20,000 have been called up to take part.
By upping the ante, the authorities are trying to send a message not just to Beijing, but also Taiwan's allies, especially the US, that it is stepping up and prepared to defend itself.
Increasing pressure from Beijing
Beijing is already putting the screws on Taiwan in a myriad of ways.
Chinese military flights and voyages around and near the island have grown to numbers that only a few years ago were unheard of.
Before former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei in 2022, Chinese planes almost never crossed the median line, the midway point between Taiwan and China in the Strait.
Now, it is a near-daily occurrence.
China also routinely signals its unhappiness with Taiwanese authorities by launching military exercises around the island.
The pressure manifests in other ways also.
Taiwanese officials speak often of "grey zone warfare", actions that fall short of outright acts of war, but still pressure and harass the island.
This looks like anything from the cutting of undersea cables that connect Taiwan to the internet and the world, to barrages of disinformation online and work by China's united front, which targets local temples.
There has also been a recent spate of high-profile spying cases in senior political offices, with staffers of previous foreign minister Joseph Wu and President Lai Ching-te being arrested and charged.
Aides to politicians from the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, have also been the subject of espionage probes.
Beijing squeezes Taiwan's international space too.
While only a handful of countries have formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, an increasing number of nations are signing agreements with Beijing in which they have to agree to the "One-China Principle", which states Taiwan is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China.
More than 60 per cent of UN member states now endorse the One China Policy, according to analysis by the Lowy Institute.
Australia and the US, on the other hand, have policies that acknowledge Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of its territory, but do not endorse it.
Billions spent on defensive weapons
The tensions already had Taiwanese authorities looking to bolster defences, but that has been made more urgent by the second Trump administration.
During Joe Biden's term as president, there was a level of confidence in US support thanks to his repeated statements that America would defend Taiwan, even if they were wound back each time by the White House.
Now, any guarantee that the US will back it in a conflict with China looks volatile and insecure.
President Donald Trump has said Taiwan needs to pay for US protection.
In line with US policy, he has also declined to answer questions about whether the US would allow China to take Taiwan by force.
"I never comment on that," Mr Trump said at the White House in February.
"I don't want to ever put myself in that position."
There are, however, already US troops in Taiwan training the local military, the ABC understands.
Taiwanese troops are also being trained in the US.
"The instructors who were sent to the US last year are now actively engaged in teaching and mentoring roles to ensure the knowledge is transferred effectively," says Major General Kuang-I Chou, after his troops demonstrated a group of new US-made Abrams tanks.
The fact is, Taipei does already buy a lot of military kit from the US — the backlog of vehicles and arms that Taiwan is waiting on is worth well over $20 billion.
In May, the Taiwanese military started testing the first of its HIMARS — High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — units.
They have been used again during the Han Kuang drills.
Their range of about 300 kilometres means Taiwan could strike the southern Chinese province of Fujian, just across the Taiwan Strait, and home to several military bases.
Late last year, an order of more than 100 US-made Abrams tanks started to arrive in Taiwan.
"The ammunition is significantly more powerful than that of our previous tanks, and its firing range is much longer," said Lieutenant Colonel Pao-Shun Ting.
"All tank live-fire missions this morning hit their targets. The performance and testing of the tanks were flawless."
At the same time, Taiwan has watched the war in Ukraine closely and has started to invest in building a homegrown drone industry, having witnessed their utility in Europe.
"Drones will be [useful] in the future and in the future the battle, but drones are not enough," said Professor Ying-Yu Lin, an expert in the Chinese military and Asia Pacific security from Taiwan's Tamkung University.
"The most important thing for Taiwan, we need to watch what the PLA [is] learning from Russia."
Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, the spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense said the drills were "nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick played by the [ruling] authorities to hijack Taiwan compatriots onboard its 'Taiwan Independence' war chariot".
"Whatever subjects they drill and whatever weapons they use, the PLA's resolute countermeasures against 'Taiwan Independence' would not be deterred, nor would the overwhelming and irresistible trend of China's national reunification be stopped," he said.
Civilians prepare for air raids
This year's exercises have also signalled a significant focus on preparing the public.
The Taiwanese military is only a fraction of the size of Beijing's, so withstanding any kind of war will go well beyond the armed forces.
"All-out defence is not only the government's mission, government's duty," Professor Lin said.
"Civilians, all the people still need to know what's your role, what can you do in this situation."
Community resilience is a huge concern for Taiwan's government.
"It's not easy to measure resilience but we have made a lot of progress," a senior national security official, who remained anonymous so they could talk freely, told the ABC.
The official said while there "might be an initial period of chaos" during an invasion or conflict, Taiwan's experience in responding to natural disasters, especially earthquakes, puts it in a good position to respond.
Urban resilience drills ran alongside the Han Kuang exercise, with every city and county, apart from those impacted by a recent typhoon, holding air raid drills.
As part of the preparations, taxi drivers are being trained to become a wartime volunteer police force, the official said.
Some drills even included mock protests and clashes that might occur if food and other supplies started to run short.
One of the largest cities, Taichung, held an all-encompassing drill that had everything from aid distribution centres to a makeshift wartime hospital in a school's indoor sports hall.
At another air raid drill, staff and shoppers at a supermarket had to rush to a basement car park.
Families eating at McDonald's were hurried into the same area where they crouched in a brace position for about half an hour.
"It helps people understand where to take shelter and how to respond if an attack occurs," said Aaron Kao, a member of the public who was participating in the drills at the distribution centre.
"For the public, the best outcome is to avoid war altogether, but if it becomes unavoidable … I would defend our homeland."
