The annual Han Kuang military exercises this year would be unscripted and not feature live-fire drills on Taiwan proper in a departure from previous iterations, Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) told lawmakers yesterday.
Mei made the remarks in a question-and-answer session on the exercises at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei, the first time a chief of the general staff had reported to lawmakers in nearly 25 years.
This year’s Han Kuang exercises are scheduled for July 22 to 26.
Photo: CNA
The design of this year’s military drills has undergone extensive changes focusing on familiarizing maneuver brigades with their operational environment and roles in war plans to address the rising threat from China, he said.
The exercises would emphasize realism and practicing decentralized command and control, and would not have scripts and rehearsals or the participation of marines and army special forces role-playing as opposition forces, he said.
That means the annual Lien Hsin marine corps amphibious assault drills and annual army special forces parachute drills would be held separately from Han Kuang exercises in another change from past practice, Mei said.
The former would be conducted early next month, while the latter would be held sometime after the Han Kuang exercises, he said.
Marines and special forces would instead focus on their assigned missions, operational environment, and command and control arrangements, he added.
When asked to clarify the partial omission of live-fire drills, Mei said troops based in the nation’s outlying islands would practice with live ammunition as before.
Military units based in Taiwan proper would conduct live-fire exercises separately, he said, adding that this year’s guided precision munition drills have increased in rigor.
Giving commanders freedom of action, clear areas of responsibility and rules of engagement, and ensuring units are capable of operating without being given orders are part of the distributed command and control capabilities that this year’s exercises would put to the test, he said.
Echoing Mei’s comments, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told legislators that the canceled part of the live-fire drills was performative and that units have been allotted more live-ammo practice than in previous years.
Separately, Mei told reporters on the sidelines of the legislative meeting that he does not consider attending the committee meeting in person to be demeaning to the chief of the general staff’s office.
Should his appearance at the meeting instill a greater understanding for and appreciation of the armed forces in the public and media, going to the legislature would be worthwhile, he said.
Koo at the same impromptu news conference said that the admiral attended the session out of respect for lawmakers and that Ministry of National Defense officials believe the nation’s top commander in principle should answer their summons.
However, legislators should limit their questions to the annual military drills and not expect to summon the chief of the general staff as a matter of course, Koo said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
The Taipei District Court today ruled to extend the incommunicado detention of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) for two more months as part of an ongoing corruption trial. Codefendants in the case — real-estate tycoon Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) and Ko's former mayoral office head Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗) — were granted bail of NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) and NT$20 million respectively. Sheen and Lee would also be barred from leaving the country for eight months and prohibited from contact with, harassing, threatening or inquiring after the case with codefendants or witnesses. The two would also be
RSS