Supermarkets in Taiwan are chaotically emptied as tampon stocks run low. Tanks rumble down city streets as clueless citizens look out of bus windows. Shipping and semiconductor stocks are plunging.

Then, television screens across the island abruptly cut to a newscast on Chinese state TV. With an eerie smile, an anchor in a pink suit announces, “the PLA promises all Taiwanese compatriots will be ...

Hong Kong/Taipei (CNN) — Following a military blockade, panic and chaos rip through a besieged island: residents scramble to withdraw cash, foreign nationals rush to be evacuated, riots break out in ...