People wearing masks walk on street in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, March 30, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

 The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on the island of Taiwan has been hyping the tense cross-Taiwan Straits situation recently, causing panic among local residents and forcing some of them to start hoarding supplies. 

But experts said that the cross-Straits situation is far from bursting into war and the DPP authority's move is only intended to cultivate hatred against the Chinese mainland while enhancing the "legitimacy" of Taiwan secessionism. 

Media on the island reported on Sunday that, in consideration of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s frequent flights near the island in recent days, the Taiwan defense authority would spend about NT$4 billion ($144 million) in 2022 on quick and effective treatment of patients in wartime.    

The news came just a few days after the leader of the defense authority of Taiwan, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said that the authority is making a handbook on civilian survival in wartime, which is expected to be finished by next March. It would tell civilians how to survive and where to find safe places during wartime. 

Chiu said this on Thursday when making a report to the island's legislative authority on the increasingly tense cross-Straits situation and its impact on the island's relations with the mainland as well as with the US.

The handbook is part of the work of the authority to establish an all-out Defense Mobilization Agency for the purposes of undertaking military mobilization by the end of January. 

In earlier October, Chiu said that the cross-Straits situation is at the "most serious" point in the more than 40 years since he joined the armed forces on the island. 

Mainland experts noted that, instead of targeting ordinary residents, the PLA's massive military actions in the airspace near the island of Taiwan this year is aimed to deter secessionism and foreign forces, especially the US, which supports the secessionist authorities in the island. 

In contrast, by creating panic, the DPP intends to manipulate public opinions and cultivate hatred against the mainland while enhancing the "legitimacy" of its secessionism, Zhang Wensheng, deputy dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The DPP's speculation is practically affecting some residents on the island as local media reported that some of them are hoarding supplies due to worries over an upcoming war. 

A survey conducted by a local think tank in late September showed that more than 40 percent of 1,074 residents in Taipei were worried there would be a war between the two sides across the Straits.

It is a fact the cross-Straits relation is growingly tense, but it is still far from bursting into war, Zhang said, in an effort to ease public concerns.

By hyping the cross-Straits situation, the DPP is also trying to shift public attention from its failures in other fields, such as the combating the COVID-19 epidemic and resuming the economy, Zhang noted.