The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday announced China's armed forces will begin a fourth round of artillery exercises today. The exercises are expected to finish tomorrow.
Although the series of drills has lasted for more than a month, the MND has told the public repeatedly that the exercises are routine and not a threat to Taiwan.
The exercise, which began on May 25, is to go into its fourth phase today. The fourth phase will follow the same pattern as previous exercises, with drills being carried out along coastal shooting range between Chinjiang and Yungning cities in Fujian. The drills will conclude tomorrow.
"The aim of this long-running exercise has been to train troops for high-tech operations against three main objects -- Stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and assault helicopters," said Rear Admiral Chao Lien-ti (
Chao admitted, however, that the live-fire artillery test by the Chinese military has gone on for longer and was on a larger scale than they had initially expected.
"We have found that the exercise has expanded to more than a live-fire shooting of artillery shells. It has now become a troop maneuver involving soldiers from around the country," Chao said.
Chinese troops participating in the exercise are mainly from the 31st Group Army based in Xiamen, Chao said, but other military regions have also sent representatives to watch and learn from the drill. Besides live-fire shooting, the participating troops also staged amphibious landing operations, he said.
Chao predicted the Chinese military will make public photos or films of the exercise immediately after its conclusion, and did not rule out the possibility of more drills.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS