The appearance of structures similar to the Presidential Office Building in China’s recent war games sparked Internet debate over whether the footage was a targeted provocation against Taiwan and a demonstration of China’s willingness to resort to military force to unify Taiwan with China.
In the most recent Military Report show aired by Chinese state-media China Central Television (CCTV) on July 5, exercises at the Zhurihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region successfully simulated a “decapitation” strategy and demonstrated high efficiency in intelligence gathering where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), helicopters and recon teams sent back hundreds of photographs to command.
The three-minute video clip featured special forces personnel sprinting into a five-story building with a tower in one of the Stride 2015 Zhurihe series of exercises by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Photo: CNA screen grab from CCTV
The footage showing Chinese troops maneuvering toward a building resembling the Presidential Office Building was not the first time Chinese forces have simulated an attack on Taiwan in military exercises.
The PLA reportedly built a replica of Taichung’s shared-use Cingcyuangang Air Field in China’s Gansu Province to simulate attacks on the airfield. The PLA Army, PLA Air Force and special forces also reportedly established a special forces team in the Nanjing military zone that was fluent in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) earlier this year.
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) yesterday said that the implied target of the military exercise was detrimental to cross-strait relations and was not an action either the Taiwanese or the international community could accept.
The ministry is up to date on all PLA exercises and while adhering to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) instructions of “three defensive lines” and not embarking on an arms race with China, the military maintains a force that would effectively deter Taiwan’s enemies and capably defend the nation, Lo said.
The three defensive lines refers to Ma’s previous statements, with the first being institutionalized relations with China; the other two the country’s soft power and international support for Taiwan.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS