How Taiwan used women's voices to send secret messages into China and woo defectors

KINMEN, Taiwan — Back in the 1970s, Tian Liyun could not travel to China's mainland, but her voice could.

She was among a crew of Taiwanese broadcasters who took turns trying to cajole listeners in Communist China to defect. They recited slogans and played music, with powerful speakers and shortwave radios carrying their message the short distance across the strait to mainland China.

Not to be outdone, on the other side of the strait, China set up its own loudspeakers to blare missives and music back at Taiwan.

Now discontinued, the dueling propaganda broadcasts echoed a turbulent history shared by China and Taiwan — driven apart by unresolved historical enmity after a bloody civil war. For the Taiwanese women at the front line of this audio standoff, the job gave them a unique viewpoint into cross-strait relations and Taiwan's eventual democratization. Their stories gain new relevance today at a of between Taiwan and China.