Taiwan plans to incorporate lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into upcoming military exercises aimed at practicing fighting off a Chinese attack, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Taiwan has raised its alert level since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wary of the possibility Beijing might make a similar move, although it has reported no signs that this is about to happen.
What lessons to learn from the war in Ukraine on how the nation could defend itself if China attacked have been widely debated in Taiwan, and discussed with the US, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) has said.
Photo: CNA
This year’s Han Kuang military exercises would be split into two parts to be held next month and in July, the ministry said in a statement.
Next month’s events would include a tabletop exercise based on “various possible actions of the Chinese Communist Party ... to invade Taiwan, taking into account the lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war,” the ministry said.
There will also be five days of drills with soldiers, including live-fire exercises that would take place in July, it added.
The Han Kuang exercises would focus on attacking the enemy at sea, preserving combat forces and “integrating the total force of the whole people to support military operations,” the ministry said, referring to civil defense and reservist reforms that aim to improve Taiwan’s ability to fight a war with China.
While Taiwanese officials have seen many parallels in the Ukraine war and their own situation, including having their own giant neighbor with territorial ambitions, they have also pointed to major differences.
For example, Taiwan has talked of the “natural barrier” of the Taiwan Strait, which would make China putting troops on the ground much more difficult than just crossing a land border.
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
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.
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
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by