The Han Kuang military drills entered their seventh day yesterday, with a focus on prolonged defensive operations.
Units simulated a scenario in which the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) established beachheads in an invasion of Taiwan, requiring units to block its advance inland toward Taipei.
In New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), the 269 Mechanized Infantry Brigade carried out defensive exercises against enemy forces that landed in the Port of Taipei, seeking to hold key strategic positions.
Photo: CNA
President William Lai (賴清德) inspected the unit and observed its drills early yesterday morning before visiting the navy’s Hai Feng Shore-based Anti-ship Missile Group.
The group deployed four launch vehicles, some of which were equipped with what looked to be extended-range Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) missiles, as well as a supporting communication vehicle.
This would be the first time the extended-range variant has been seen in public. It was developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and reportedly has a range of up to 400km.
Photo: CNA
Also on the scene to provide security were armed vehicles from the army’s Guandu Area Command.
The armed forces are set to spend more than NT$44.1 billion (US$1.51 billion) to mass produce HF-3 missiles, both standard and extended-range variants, its plans showed.
As production is on schedule, the military has provided it to the missile group for operational use.
Photo: AFP
In the future, the missiles would also be deployed on navy frigates, as well as key bases in Taiwan’s north, south and east to make use of its long-term capabilities.
Meanwhile, a video released by the Presidential Office showed the president in front of a drone that had not been publicly revealed before. The drone has a fixed-wing configuration with horizontal main wings, an inverted V-shaped tailplane, four sets of rotors for vertical takeoff and landing and a pusher-type propeller mounted at the rear. Based on its configuration, it is believed to be the navy’s newly acquired land-based reconnaissance uncrewed aerial vehicle.
In Taipei, the 202nd Military Police Command practiced delaying a simulated PLA advance into the city by blocking and fortifying the Wanban Bridge (萬板大橋) that connects New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) with Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), closing the bridge from 11pm on Monday to 6am yesterday.
Photo: AFP
The drill began with military police building a four-tier blockade on the bridge within two hours in anticipation of incoming PLA troops.
The temporary 690m-long blockade was made up of roadblocks, civilian buses and barbed wire barricades, as well as newly acquired Hesco bastions — modern, collapsible barriers made of wire mesh and fabric.
Used in Iraq and Afghanistan, the barriers were originally designed for flood control and military fortifications, and have the advantage of accelerating the construction of temporary defenses.
During the drill, military police first used drones to detect the PLA’s deployment remotely before simulating opening fire on Chinese troops.
The second part of the drill simulated PLA troops breaking through three of the four levels of the blockade set up by Taiwanese forces before being fired on by Taiwanese snipers from high points.
The exercise was a continuation of drills from yesterday, during which soldiers practiced using the Taipei MRT system to reinforce positions, reach a target area and engage the enemy.
In Lieyu (Little Kinmen, 烈嶼), which lies to the west of Kinmen County’s main island, a garrison was deployed to Kinmen Bridge (金門大橋) to guard critical infrastructure and counter an enemy invasion.
Reservists continued to participate in the military exercises and training in various locations across the nation.
In Miaoli County, reservists in the 302nd Infantry Brigade continued simulated combat drills and practiced battlefield medical evacuation operations.
Additionally, civilian urban resilience drills started yesterday in central Taiwan, including Taichung, and Miaoli, Nantou and Changhua counties.
They are to continue today in the south, tomorrow in northern Taiwan and in the east on Friday.
Additional reporting by Aaron Tu
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS