China has expanded a military training mock-up of government buildings in Taipei, including the Presidential Office Building, by almost threefold since 2020, according to satellite images of a training base in Inner Mongolia obtained by think tank Japanese Institute for National Fundamentals, the Sankei Shimbun reported yesterday.
The think tank said it obtained the images yesterday from China’s largest military training ground, the 1,066 square kilometer Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China.
The most recent images show a newly constructed 280km tunnel connecting the mock Presidential Office Building to the mock Judicial Yuan, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Sankei Shimbun via CNA
Beijing’s intention is to pressure Taiwan and send the message that even if Taipei build tunnels, the nation’s leaders cannot run, institute researcher Maki Nakagawa said.
The mock-ups are to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan, and are publicized to incite psychological warfare against Taiwan, the report said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been constructing mock buildings of the Presidential Office, the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for at least a decade, it said.
China Central Television in 2015 broadcast footage of the mock Presidential Office Building during live army exercises.
Construction began on the fake Judicial Yuan building in August 2020 and was completed in 2021, satellite images showed.
Next to the Judicial Yuan is a red-roofed building that images show was first being built in November 2023 and completed in April, intended to replicate the Ministry of Defense’s Reserve Command, which stands opposite the Judicial Yuan in Taipei.
Satellite images from July 2022 showed the PLA practicing exercises such as erecting roadblocks at the crossroads leading to the fake Presidential Office Building and mock Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then clearing them before advancing with armored vehicles.
The following month, the PLA deployed multiple armored vehicles as brigade-sized troop units conducted training simulating combat against forces defending the Presidential Office Building.
Since August, armored vehicles and roadblocks have again been observed on roads around the mock Presidential Office Building, suggesting that training continues, the report said.
After Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) became chairman of the Central Military Commission in 2012, he ordered the military to bolster realistic training, it said.
In March 2018, the PLA for the first time held a “training mobilization meeting,” in which Xi, wearing a combat uniform, instructed the PLA to “intensify realistic combat training,” it added.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS