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.
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