The latest computerized scenario carried out by the military showed that in a war with China, Taiwan’s military was able to defeat enemy forces after they landed and tried to occupy the country, a local newspaper said yesterday.
The Chinese-language China Times reported that the Han Kuang 27 computerized war games held from July 18 to July 23 showed the military would survive a first strike from the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) from the air and sea. In the simulation, after PLA troops landed in the central part of the country, Taiwanese troops surrounded the enemy forces in the Dadu Mountain (大肚山) area near Greater Taichung and annihilated them.
This was the best performance in computerized war games carried out by the military in recent years, the newspaper said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Under the scenario, which assumed war next year, the PLA launched about 1,000 ballistic missiles and cruise missiles to attack Taiwan’s air force, civilian airports and various military facilities, before sending in ground troops from the sea and air, the newspaper said.
The scenario also had China’s Il-76 airlifters, which carry a number of paratroopers, taking off from airports in Fujian Province with air support from Su-30 aircraft.
Those paratroopers then carried out a successful occupation of Taiwan’s military airports.
Out at sea, a division of PLA landing craft groups would head toward Taiwan, with more than 100,000 soldiers crossing the Taiwan Strait in civilian vessels.
The report said the landing craft groups would pretend to be heading toward northern Taiwan and that the Sixth Army Corps stationed in northern Taiwan would prepare to ward off the enemy. However, the sea troops would suddenly change direction and land in the area near Taichung Harbor and the Dajia River (大甲溪).
PLA troops would occupy Taichung Harbor and Cingcyuangang Air Force Base in Greater Taichung, putting the Taiwanese military at a disadvantage.
However, after the army defeated the small forces landing on northern and southern Taiwan, the Eighth Army Corps succeeded in heading to the Dadu Mountain area and with the mobilization of reserve troops, the military surrounded enemy forces and defeated them.
The report said the key point to winning the war simulation is that after the PLA launched the missile strikes, Taiwan’s air force quickly moved its major fighters into tunnels at Hualien Air Force Base. With air support from fighters and helicopter forces, the army was able to defeat the enemy in the Greater Taichung area in the simulation.
Military spokesman David Lo (羅紹和) said the military would not comment on the news report.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.