AP Photo

Recently in Taipei, as yet another delegation from mainland China cut the ribbon to an investment fair and Taiwan's hotel industry anticipated ever-rising numbers of mainland tourists, the island's President Ma Ying-jeou had his eyes fixed on monitors.

Shown on them weren't the rosy graphs of the Taiwan bourse, nor was the president surrounded by economists and party officials. In the midst of Taiwan's military top brass, Ma was inspecting a spine-chilling cyber-simulation of missile attacks on Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army (PLA).