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.
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