Speaker 1: Hi, I'm wanh and this is the big take from Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: We've got something special for you today. This Saturday, Taiwanese
Speaker 1: are heading to the Poles to elect a new president,
Speaker 1: and perhaps no issue weighs more heavily on the mind
Speaker 1: of voters than the escalating tensions with China. Conflict with
Speaker 1: its mighty neighbor just across the waters is a constant
Speaker 1: that Taiwanese have lived with for decades. China sees Taiwan
Speaker 1: as a breakaway province. In nineteen forty nine, China's Communists
Speaker 1: defeated the Nationalist Party in a civil war and took
Speaker 1: over the mainland. That defeated army fled to Taiwan to
Speaker 1: establish its own government there, which China refuses to acknowledge
Speaker 1: and has threatened to take back the island by force
Speaker 1: if necessary. Are the people of Taiwan. That danger has
Speaker 1: felt more real since August twenty twenty two. That's when
Speaker 1: a surprise visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to
Speaker 1: the island prompted China to launch unprecedented military drills. And
Speaker 1: on top of those growing internal fears, Taiwanese are also
Speaker 1: paying close attention to a global battle outside the region,
Speaker 1: a battle that feels too similar to their own worst nightmare,
Speaker 1: Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin sends in waves
Speaker 1: of new troops. The struggle to fight back against a
Speaker 1: more powerful enemy has hit close to home for many Taiwanese,
Speaker 1: so close that a few of them have even decided
Speaker 1: to join Ukraine's fight. Today, our reporter Young Young brings
Speaker 1: us a story of one of them, a young Taiwanese
Speaker 1: soldier Sun Changwang, or Jonathan Sun, who volunteers to fight
Speaker 1: for Ukraine. Here's Young with Jonathan's story.
Speaker 2: On a Saturday afternoon last June, Jonathan's Sam prepares to
Speaker 2: board a flight at Taiwan Tahyan International Airport. This will
Speaker 2: be the start of his journey to the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Jonathan is snacking on some Taiwanese popcorn chicken in the
Speaker 2: foot court of Terminu one. He's twenty four years old,
Speaker 2: five feet eight, in a navy blue shirt and a
Speaker 2: fresh flat top, baby faced but well built. His wife,
Speaker 2: who asked that we call her Gina, sits quietly by him,
Speaker 2: ice bread and puffy. Jonathan, mom Ma, I'm taking the
Speaker 2: flight tonight. To Ukraine, he says, and she starts crying
Speaker 2: on the phone too. Then crying becomes begging, Begging becomes yelling,
Speaker 2: and yelling becomes crying again. Jonathan tries to comfort her.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, he.
Speaker 3: Tries to laugh it off. I'll be back soon.
Speaker 2: Jonathan's got two bags beside him, one big and one small.
Speaker 2: In them, He's got everything he expects to need for
Speaker 2: the next couple of months. A bulletproof vest, two bulletproof boards,
Speaker 2: a helmet, muscle pain relievers, and a ton of Taiwanese
Speaker 2: instant noodles. He did his homework before packing these bags.
Speaker 2: He talked to multiple people who knew about the situation
Speaker 2: on the ground in Ukraine, from tactical gear suppliers to
Speaker 2: other volunteer soldiers. All of them warned him about the risks.
Speaker 2: They told him the logistics in Ukraine were garbage. At
Speaker 2: that time, the country had such a shortage of equipment
Speaker 2: that soldiers were sharing things like helmets on the battlefield.
Speaker 2: Hearing these kinds of stories scared Gina. She did not
Speaker 2: want Jonathan to go, but she knows her husband. He's
Speaker 2: as stubborn as a mule. She told me, if she
Speaker 2: overreacted or tried to talk him out of it. He
Speaker 2: would disappear and do it anyway.
Speaker 3: If I try to stop him, it's very likely that
Speaker 3: I would never see him again, and I would find
Speaker 3: out that he's made it into Ukraine when he's dead.
Speaker 2: Upstairs, in the airport hallway, a group of people are
Speaker 2: waiting to send Jonathan off. He's got some friends there,
Speaker 2: but also some people he's just met. Some of them
Speaker 2: are Ukrainians living in Taiwan who heard that Jonathan was
Speaker 2: going to join the fight and want to see him off.
Speaker 2: These Ukrainians have worked with local Taiwanese people to raise
Speaker 2: money to donate supplies and equipment to Ukraine. Some of
Speaker 2: the money they raised paid for Jonathan's gear. At one point,
Speaker 2: Jonathan and some members of the Ukrainian community all stand
Speaker 2: in a line for a picture. They hold two flags
Speaker 2: in front of them, one for Taiwan, one for Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Nobody smiles in the picture. Jonathan's wife, Gina says, the
Speaker 2: journey to this moment of him heading off to the
Speaker 2: war started back in February twenty twenty two, just one
Speaker 2: day after Russia invaded.
Speaker 4: That's joy wish Katia.
Speaker 3: He has a habit of watching videos before going to sleep.
Speaker 3: You know, that was his pre bedtime routine, and almost
Speaker 3: everything he watched at that time was about the war.
Speaker 5: She's the hawling and c but los Ukula, don't.
Speaker 2: Go and see Gina told me. There was one video
Speaker 2: that really got to him. In the video, a Russian
Speaker 2: war plan was firing on the village near Kiev. It
Speaker 2: was filmed from a civilian's house. The plane fired two shots,
Speaker 2: one of them broke through the window. A small child
Speaker 2: started screaming. A woman rushed them downstairs to the base.
Speaker 4: Meant the moment, couldn't it.
Speaker 3: There was a moment when he saw a kid getting bombed.
Speaker 3: That kid was of the same age as his son.
Speaker 2: Jonathan has a son from a previous relationship.
Speaker 6: Tana sold you to the soul.
Speaker 3: He said to me, I don't know what I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do if my kids was bombed like this.
Speaker 2: This idea that his own son could be bombed at home,
Speaker 2: it wasn't coming out of nowhere for Jonathan. For decades,
Speaker 2: China has been threatening Taiwan with the prospect of animation,
Speaker 2: and lately China's military has been ramping up aggressive activities
Speaker 2: across the Taiwan Strait, so when the war broke out
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, it was easy for Jonathan to see himself
Speaker 2: in the face of the people who were under attack. Now,
Speaker 2: of course, lots of people saw this video too and
Speaker 2: didn't decide to go to Ukraine and enlist. But Jonathan
Speaker 2: was yon and a little lost, and his wife said
Speaker 2: for much of his life he felt disempowered, like he
Speaker 2: didn't have a say in what happened to him. But
Speaker 2: making a choice to go to Ukraine that was something
Speaker 2: he was in control of. Jonathan's plan was to fly
Speaker 2: to Poland and then travel to Ukraine by car from
Speaker 2: the border. Once in Ukraine, he would go to the
Speaker 2: Foreign Legion. A week after he left Taiwan. On that flight,
Speaker 2: Jonathan updated his Facebook profile picture. In it, he was
Speaker 2: standing in what looks like a dormitory holding a rifle
Speaker 2: in a full military camouflage uniform. In the comments, his
Speaker 2: friends back home did not shy away from pointing out
Speaker 2: his beer belly and far stretched shirt. Did you get
Speaker 2: two sizes too small, somebody asked, He replied politely, I too.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm sure I'll lose weight soon.
Speaker 3: He was right about that.
Speaker 2: Once Jonathan got to Ukraine. He went to a base
Speaker 2: of the Ukraine Foreign Legion. It's usually the first stop
Speaker 2: for foreigners who want to fight for the country. It
Speaker 2: was there that he made one of his first friends
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, a young American soldier from Ohio who goes
Speaker 2: by Shaggy.
Speaker 6: Hello, my name is Shaggy. I am a volunteer fighter
Speaker 6: in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Shaggy said he and Jonathan both showed up at the
Speaker 2: center and basically said hello, I want to fight, and
Speaker 2: then they answered a bunch of questions.
Speaker 6: You give him many military documents you have, you have
Speaker 6: to do like medical checks, and then you'll have to
Speaker 6: like do an interview where they find out your military experience,
Speaker 6: and then they make a file for you, and then
Speaker 6: they send you to whatever unit they want to send you.
Speaker 2: Shaggy told me he and Jonathan watched a lot of
Speaker 2: people come and go at the Legion. Many didn't stick around.
Speaker 6: So a lot of people came, I guess with like
Speaker 6: big dreams of being some sort of action hero. They
Speaker 6: hadn't had any military training, they didn't have any military experience.
Speaker 6: They just didn't process what exactly they were getting themselves into.
Speaker 2: But that wasn't the case. Was him and Jonathan before Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Shaggy served in the US Army for three years and
Speaker 2: Jonathan was in the Taiwanese Army for nearly five years.
Speaker 2: In a Facebook post, Jonathan seemed proud that he stayed on.
Speaker 5: We don't take trash here. We take people who are
Speaker 5: not scared to die, who dare to charge. So if
Speaker 5: you want to come, come fast. We already kicked four people,
Speaker 5: oh yesterday. We desperately need more right now.
Speaker 2: And to people who met Jonathan early in his time
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, he looked comfortable there, an eager soldier in
Speaker 2: a growing conflict.
Speaker 4: I think he was really built to be a soldier.
Speaker 2: Saffron Chicase is a war photographer who was embedded in
Speaker 2: the same unit as Jonathan for a while.
Speaker 4: You could tell that, especially when he was wearing full kit. Well,
Speaker 4: you know, some other soldiers, to be completely honest, when
Speaker 4: they're wearing full kit, you start wondering, like, hey, who
Speaker 4: who'd you borrow that from?
Speaker 5: You know, did you borrow that from?
Speaker 4: Did you take that from somebody? Like they seem like
Speaker 4: they're out of their element, But Jonathan saying was definitely
Speaker 4: in his element when he wore.
Speaker 7: His kit it's just his second skin.
Speaker 4: Yeah, second skin. Yeah, that's a good, good way to
Speaker 4: put it.
Speaker 2: So Jonathan was all dressed and ready to play his part,
Speaker 2: but things got off to a slow start. It happened
Speaker 2: a month since he arrived in Ukraine and he hadn't
Speaker 2: gone on a single mission yet. Life at the Foreign
Speaker 2: Legion turned out to be just about training every day.
Speaker 2: Here's Shaggy again.
Speaker 6: We just do military drills every day. Just wake up,
Speaker 6: do exercise, come back, eat breakfast, train until lunch. It's
Speaker 6: more training until later, and I have the rest of
Speaker 6: the day off. That was pretty much about every day.
Speaker 2: The training was helpful at first, but Shaggy said it
Speaker 2: soon got old. He and Jonathan kept hoping to get
Speaker 2: assigned to a mission, but instead they were sent to
Speaker 2: the training ground. Jonathan posted a selfie I still face covered.
Speaker 5: Captioned wait Wait Wait.
Speaker 2: After nearly two months, Shaggy and Jonathan decided that's it.
Speaker 2: They were done waiting.
Speaker 6: So me, Jonathan and these two other guys we left
Speaker 6: and we went to a unit that was actively fighting.
Speaker 2: Unit that they left for is the forty nine Battalion.
Speaker 2: I was able to reach one of the other guys
Speaker 2: who went.
Speaker 7: With them, I'll just go by Ron.
Speaker 2: Jonathan, Matt, Shaggy and Ron in the Foreign Legion. They
Speaker 2: spent their time there waiting around but also sizing people up,
Speaker 2: and they found each other reliable.
Speaker 8: That's why I left with the three others because I
Speaker 8: knew how they would fight compared to if I just
Speaker 8: stayed there. Because the team that in the legion that
Speaker 8: was left with brand new, and I didn't know how
Speaker 8: they would react or do anything when we got into
Speaker 8: any conflicts.
Speaker 2: Just like that, they made a pact going forward, they
Speaker 2: would move as a group and back each other up.
Speaker 2: But before Jonathan joined the new unit, some news drew
Speaker 2: his attention back home to Taiwan. We don't even John
Speaker 2: Pale the yeah jelouse since I nae said. At the
Speaker 2: beginning of August twenty twenty two, US House Speaker Nancy
Speaker 2: Pelosi made a surprise, unprecedented visit to Taiwan, which sparked
Speaker 2: fury from China. China sees Taiwan as part of its
Speaker 2: territory and opposes any official interaction with Taiwan from foreign governments.
Speaker 9: And this morning, Chinese officials warned against the quote e
Speaker 9: grigious political impact of a trip to the self governing islands.
Speaker 2: With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meeting with Taiwan's president overnight.
Speaker 4: China is accusing the US of playing with fire.
Speaker 2: In response to Pelosi's trip, Beijing announced military exercises in
Speaker 2: the waters surrounding Taiwan, including conducting live ammunition drolls and
Speaker 2: firing missiles directly over the island.
Speaker 9: The Pentagon is working around the clock monitoring any Chinese
Speaker 9: movements in the region and securing a plan to keep
Speaker 9: Pelosi and the congressional delegation she's leading safe.
Speaker 2: Taiwan at the time was debating extending its compulsory military
Speaker 2: service from four months to one year, and Jonathan supported it.
Speaker 2: He wrote on Facebook, just.
Speaker 5: Straight up extended. Where do all these questions come from?
Speaker 2: Then he asked himself, should I go back? After all,
Speaker 2: it was his fear for his home that had brought
Speaker 2: him to Ukraine in the first place. He talked to
Speaker 2: the war photographer Seffron about it.
Speaker 4: So, Jonathan, why are you out here fighting, fighting for Ukraine?
Speaker 10: Why am I heir?
Speaker 2: This is a video taped by Seffron when he first
Speaker 2: met Jonathan this very evening. Sefron was able to grab
Speaker 2: Jonathan for a quick interview. As he came up the
Speaker 2: hill from training, the sun set behind him. His face
Speaker 2: was a bit blurry from the halo.
Speaker 4: First of all, where are you from them?
Speaker 10: I'm from Taiwan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so on, Jonathan tapped a patch on his chest.
Speaker 2: I have Ukrainian half Taiwanese flag.
Speaker 10: I'm here just because I need to get some experience,
Speaker 10: you know, some real pen man experience. And yeah, so
Speaker 10: I can get more experience, get back to Taiwan, and yeah,
Speaker 10: help my country, defend my country. But I need to
Speaker 10: help this country first.
Speaker 4: I see, I see, And why do you want that experience?
Speaker 10: What's what's happening in Taiwan? Then, well, China once wanted
Speaker 10: to invade Taiwan. So yeah, trying to prepare yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 10: I see, I see.
Speaker 5: Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2: Back at the military base, Jonathan posted a photo. It
Speaker 2: was just his bad on one side of it. A
Speaker 2: giant Taiwanese flag was on the wall captioned hold on,
Speaker 2: and in an Instagram post, he.
Speaker 5: Wrote, as for when I'm going back, I'm not sure anyway,
Speaker 5: I won't go back until I finished the fight.
Speaker 2: Jonathan and his new friends Shaggy and Ron had left
Speaker 2: the Foreign Legion in late August and landed at the
Speaker 2: Capathian Siege forty nine Infantry Battalion, commonly known as the
Speaker 2: Siege in Ukraine. At that time, they were stationed at Ezium,
Speaker 2: a city in eastern Ukraine that holds outsized military importance.
Speaker 2: One day, the Russians attacked the base where Jonathan and
Speaker 2: the others were staying. It was a terrifying attack. Seffron
Speaker 2: was there when it happened.
Speaker 4: That's when they sent tanks rolling over the hills and
Speaker 4: close to our base. That's when the tank started firing
Speaker 4: on the base. That was a very scary moment for
Speaker 4: many of the soldiers there, and they talk about that
Speaker 4: moment a lot.
Speaker 2: Jonathan and Ron were away at the time. They left
Speaker 2: to sign some paperwork in order to keep fighting for Ukraine.
Speaker 2: But while they were gone, the house they stayed at
Speaker 2: was a hit. Some artillery landed a meter from where
Speaker 2: they'd been sleeping.
Speaker 8: Essentially, the shelter had was immediately demolished and everything inside
Speaker 8: that I left there was.
Speaker 2: Just like treaded, so you could have been killed basically. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But Jonathan's fellow soldiers were standing ground. It was around
Speaker 2: this time that Ukraine made a huge advance and pushed
Speaker 2: the Russian forces into a stunning retreat. The whole front
Speaker 2: line on the Russian side had collapsed in eastern Ukraine
Speaker 2: Easy and where Jonathan's battalion was stationed, was abandoned by
Speaker 2: the Russians in hate. While waiting for orders on what
Speaker 2: to do next, Jonathan hung with the boys and regretted
Speaker 2: not bringing Lego or video games to kill time. Instead,
Speaker 2: he watched a lot of TikTok videos and practiced his
Speaker 2: dance moves. Ron told me he would drop everything and
Speaker 2: dance to this song every time he heard it. Jonathan's
Speaker 2: friends say he was unexpectedly funny and it drew people
Speaker 2: to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 8: It was fun being with him.
Speaker 2: Gina says Jonathan had nicknames for those he bonded with
Speaker 2: and shared everything with her on FaceTime. She thinks this
Speaker 2: was perhaps the happiest time in Jonathan's life.
Speaker 3: He would tell me about everything and everybody around him,
Speaker 3: always with a smile. I was to see him smiling
Speaker 3: more during this time than when he was in Taiwan.
Speaker 1: Is That's how I do.
Speaker 3: It did not last.
Speaker 1: Jonathan's journey in Ukraine takes a dark turn after the break.
Speaker 2: After Russia retreated in September twenty twenty two, Ukraine immediately
Speaker 2: started looking for the next front line to push forward.
Speaker 2: Jonathan's battalion closed in on the Russians, gradually claiming areas
Speaker 2: where they used to be and amidst the fun that
Speaker 2: Jonathan seemed to be having with his friends, a new
Speaker 2: type of vulnerability seemed to poke through in his posts online.
Speaker 2: For the first time, Jonathan started to openly acknowledge the
Speaker 2: very real danger he was in. It came through in
Speaker 2: a conversation he had with a stranger. As the war progressed,
Speaker 2: volunteering soldiers like Jonathan started to get more attention from
Speaker 2: the media. Jonathan's profile is a public and it's not
Speaker 2: hard to find him online given his outspoken posts. But
Speaker 2: not everyone who came to his page admired him for
Speaker 2: going to Ukraine. People caught him a coward, a poser,
Speaker 2: a Taiwan separatist, and one online interaction in particular took
Speaker 2: a darker turn. He posted a screenshot of the chat
Speaker 2: on his Facebook page. So you're in the Ukrainian Army?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 2: How long have you been there?
Speaker 5: Four months?
Speaker 8: How are you treated there?
Speaker 2: What's the casualty rate?
Speaker 5: You don't even know how You're gonna die, not alone treatment.
Speaker 8: Well, you're not dead yet, are you.
Speaker 2: These words on their own might not sound that hurtful,
Speaker 2: but in Chinese culture you don't go about and ask
Speaker 2: people whether they're dead or not. It can feel like
Speaker 2: a curse. Jonathan left a caption on the screenshot.
Speaker 5: Of the chat, you're or not that yet? Are you
Speaker 5: to be? Frank? I don't know if I get to
Speaker 5: be that lucky every time. In the middle of many nights,
Speaker 5: it was the sound of bombing that woke me up,
Speaker 5: and I'm scared. You never know if it'll head your
Speaker 5: house next time.
Speaker 2: Throughout his entire time in Ukraine, Jonathan was warned by
Speaker 2: everyone about the risks he was taking. Gina told me
Speaker 2: he really believed that he come home with honor. Jonathan
Speaker 2: didn't even say goodbye to his son. He didn't see
Speaker 2: the need to. But here he is in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night, just about thirty kilometers from the enemy's base.
Speaker 2: It seems like he started to feel a target creeping
Speaker 2: on his back. A few days later, he posted this video.
Speaker 2: You only see a naked light bulb on the ceiling
Speaker 2: Jonathan probably filmed this lying on his bed. In the background,
Speaker 2: you can hear the shooting sound lending clothes to where
Speaker 2: he was he captured the post.
Speaker 5: If you got too many bullets, you can share them
Speaker 5: with me.
Speaker 2: In late October, Jonathan's battalion had a new mission to
Speaker 2: chase the Russians even further away. They were set out
Speaker 2: in two days. The first group will be in charge
Speaker 2: of pushing the front line and attacking the enemy with
Speaker 2: armored vehicles. The second group, where Jonathan was, would defend
Speaker 2: the front line right behind the first group, guarding trenches,
Speaker 2: shooting mortars, making sure no opposition came their way. The mission,
Speaker 2: as the soldiers were told, was supposed to be just
Speaker 2: about five days, and the plan was to move forward
Speaker 2: all the time as the first group gained more ground.
Speaker 2: This is absolutely not what happened next. Instead of moving
Speaker 2: forward every day, the groups made progress only on the
Speaker 2: first day. We don't know what, but somethings stopped the
Speaker 2: first group from pushing the front line further and things
Speaker 2: pretty much stopped. On day two. Jonathan's group was defending
Speaker 2: the line rather than Benson. We got this video from
Speaker 2: Jonathan's wife, Gina. She shared some videos with us that
Speaker 2: Jonathan never shared publicly. In this video, it was raining
Speaker 2: relentlessly and everything was turned into mud. Jonathan was walking
Speaker 2: in the rain, pacing around picking up trash left behind
Speaker 2: by the Russians. This hilltop he was at used to
Speaker 2: be occupied by the enemy just days ago. You can
Speaker 2: hear the bombing occasionally in the background. Now both sides
Speaker 2: were locked in a stalemate. Jonathan's group was stationed on
Speaker 2: one hilltop, the Russians on the other. They were just
Speaker 2: about one kilometer away from each other, separated by a
Speaker 2: valley in between. I talked to Shaggy about it.
Speaker 6: Every day we would get shelled periodically throughout the day,
Speaker 6: sometimes with brad rockets, sometimes tank fire, sometimes with mortars, artillery,
Speaker 6: just various weapons that they would use.
Speaker 2: The Russians used heavy artillery, They fired whatever they had
Speaker 2: on hand, and the Ukrainians fired back. The ring went
Speaker 2: on for days, and the mission had gone twice as
Speaker 2: long as it was supposed to be. People started complaining,
Speaker 2: some got sick and asked to leave early. Jonathan was
Speaker 2: constantly drenched, so was he sleeping back, but he wasn't
Speaker 2: going to leave. On the eight day of the mission,
Speaker 2: Jonathan was ordered to move bunkers. Someone one hundred meters
Speaker 2: got sick and left early. He stepped in to feel
Speaker 2: the spot. The bombings sounded worse there, at least from
Speaker 2: the look of Jonathan's videos.
Speaker 3: Right the hell he said.
Speaker 2: In the video, you can see Jonathan flinch and curl
Speaker 2: up in the bunker. Round told me there's nothing you
Speaker 2: can do when militaries are just firing artillery at each other.
Speaker 2: All you can do is to lie low in the
Speaker 2: bunker and wait for it to pass. You can tell
Speaker 2: if a cannon is getting close to you by the
Speaker 2: sound of it, and you just pray that it doesn't
Speaker 2: land on you. One night, it got too close.
Speaker 7: In Hio High.
Speaker 5: Do you guys think I'm having fun here? Let me
Speaker 5: show you what fun I've been having. Does this look
Speaker 5: like fun to you?
Speaker 2: A piece of sharp note hit just about six meters
Speaker 2: away from Jonathan. The shell cut through his vest and
Speaker 2: dented his helmet. He filmed a video showing his damaged gear,
Speaker 2: cursing at the Russians.
Speaker 5: Oh they just broke my helmet. You Ah, it's straight
Speaker 5: up dented. I'm so pissed.
Speaker 2: The shell didn't just dan Jonathan's helmet. It also left
Speaker 2: him with a concussion. A truck was supposed to pick
Speaker 2: up the injured from the field every day, and the
Speaker 2: next day Jonathan should have been on it, but the
Speaker 2: road was so muddy that the truck didn't come the
Speaker 2: next morning. That following afternoon, as usual, Russia fired another
Speaker 2: tank round. Luck was not with Jonathan this time.
Speaker 4: I remember I was sitting at the commander's table. It's
Speaker 4: like the small kitchen table, and I was drinking a coffee,
Speaker 4: and there's a radio charging area, like a counter where
Speaker 4: they put all the radios and charge them, and they
Speaker 4: just let them sit there and they keep them on,
Speaker 4: and you can hear a different radio chatter coming in,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden we hear.
Speaker 10: It broke out through.
Speaker 4: It broke a walk through, which means evacuation. They are
Speaker 4: requesting evacuation. I'm pretty good at identifying people's voices, so
Speaker 4: immediately I knew it was Third Company's commander's voice. And
Speaker 4: you could also tell that there was a very there
Speaker 4: was a lot of distress in his voice, so much
Speaker 4: so that I thought he was injured.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: A few moments later, as the press officer is listening
Speaker 4: in and getting more information, we realized that one of
Speaker 4: the guys is Jonathan. One of the guys is saying, yeah.
Speaker 2: But Jonathan was an injured he was dead.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean you can.
Speaker 4: You definitely feel like there's something that drops inside of
Speaker 4: your stomach. Yeah, your gut feels heavy, and you don't
Speaker 4: know what to do. You want to do something, but
Speaker 4: there's nothing that you can do. You know. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like being late to work and you're on the
Speaker 4: train and you just wish that you could run. Maybe
Speaker 4: you could run and get there faster, but you're on
Speaker 4: a train. There's nothing you could do. You just have
Speaker 4: to sit there and wait.
Speaker 8: And it kind of.
Speaker 4: Felt like that, you know.
Speaker 2: The news about Jonathan also made its way to run.
Speaker 7: I was just angry that that Hugh went down there
Speaker 7: instead of stayed here with me staying in that position,
Speaker 7: because you just went down there like.
Speaker 4: The day before.
Speaker 8: So I'll just punched a tree a couple of times,
Speaker 8: and then I mean I can't really do anything. We're
Speaker 8: still there and we're still thinking artillery.
Speaker 2: Two days later, over eight thousand miles away, the news
Speaker 2: reached Gina. It was, of course, the thing she had
Speaker 2: feared a most since that Saturday back in June twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, when she watched him get on that plane
Speaker 2: Poupati takuha.
Speaker 3: I feel like I want to blame him. Why didn't
Speaker 3: you take care of yourself? Why didn't you go to
Speaker 3: the doctor after you got hit? And I want to
Speaker 3: blame myself dash and beIN Why couldn't I help y go?
Speaker 2: Jonathan's been gone for over a year now, and the
Speaker 2: war in Ukraine continue is on with no end in sight.
Speaker 2: According to US officials, about half a million soldiers from
Speaker 2: both sides have been killed or injured there since the
Speaker 2: war began, and back in Taiwan, the fear over a
Speaker 2: potential Chinese attack still hands heavy in the air, although
Speaker 2: analysts say it's unlikely anytime soon. At the new home
Speaker 2: in Taipei where Gina now lives, signs of Jonathan are everywhere.
Speaker 2: A giant flag of Jonathan's battalion the siege hands above
Speaker 2: her bed. His photos and badges are at her bed side.
Speaker 2: The day she spoke to us, we joined her for lunch,
Speaker 2: and when it came to divvy up the portions, she
Speaker 2: puts some rise out for Jonathan and his shrine next
Speaker 2: to her bed. He's just here with you, I said,
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: She replied, that's Young Young from Bloomberg. If you want
Speaker 1: to see photos of Jonathan Sun's journey, visit Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also read Young's account of reporting the story there.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Young Young. She and Juan
Speaker 1: Chin Hua reported the story. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney,
Speaker 1: along with m O'Brien and Dan ten Kate. Sound design,
Speaker 1: mixing and engineering was by Young Young and Alexander Sugiura.
Speaker 1: Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast and a
Speaker 1: big thanks to our colleagues for their help in making
Speaker 1: this episode, including Samson, Ellis, Alice Huang, and Katria Alampei.
Speaker 1: Join us next week for another episode from Taiwan. We'll
Speaker 1: hear how locals are preparing for the prospect of a
Speaker 1: Chinese invasion. See you