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.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,