Taiwan yesterday carried out anti-landing drills on a strategic river on the first day of the annual Han Kuang exercises, which this year aim to be as close as possible to actual combat, with no script, while simulating how to repel a Chinese attack.
China has been staging regular exercises around Taiwan to pressure Taipei and has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan’s drills this year do not include elements that are mostly for show, such as scripted displays of firepower, while there would be intensified nighttime exercises and personnel would practice how to operate with severed command lines.
Photo: Lo Kou-chia, Taipei Times
At the mouth of a major river leading to Taipei in Tamsui District (淡水), soldiers practiced laying mines and nets to stymie landing enemy forces, part of a series of drills designed to prevent the capital from being seized.
“We are trying our best to slow them down as much as possible,” a military officer told reporters, referring to a scenario in which the enemy was trying to make landfall by sending rubber boats up Tamsui River.
“The slower they move, the better for us,” he added.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Earlier yesterday in nearby Taoyuan, outside of Taipei and home to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, reservists gathered to receive their orders as they would during a war, and civilian vans were pressed into service to carry supplies.
On Thursday, Taoyuan airport is to close for an hour in the morning for the drills, although a typhoon is expected to affect Taiwan that day, meaning the exercise could be delayed.
Live-fire drills are only taking place on Taiwan’s outlying islands, including Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, which are near China’s coast.
The five-day war games are happening in conjunction with the Wanan air defense exercise, where the streets of major cities are evacuated for half an hour during a simulated Chinese missile attack, and test warning alarms would sound on mobile phones.
The Han Kuang drill scenarios this week include setting up contingency command lines after existing hubs are destroyed and dispersing Chinese forces trying to land on Taiwan’s west coast, a defense official involved in the planning said.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS