Taiwan is holding urban resilience drills concurrently with this year’s Han Kuang 41 military exercises to bolster civil defense preparedness, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan Central Joint Emergency Operation Center (CJEOC) is overseeing the simulations in New Taipei City, Yilan County, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, which began on from Monday and are to run until Tuesday next week, officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference.
The resilience drills would take place for two days in each jurisdiction, followed by exercises in 11 municipalities in conjunction with Han Kuang 41’s live-fire maneuver component, they said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The armed forces, the Executive Yuan and local governments are to jointly conduct the exercises to enhance their coordination in handling nationwide crises, officials said.
The government last year created the annual urban resilience drills by combining the yearly Wan An and Ming An civil defense drills in response to a perceived need to bolster the nation’s resilience, officials cited Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying.
The decision was made after studying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which underscored the dangers faced by Taiwan amidst China’s authoritarian expansionism and extreme weather events from climate change, he said.
This year’s resilience drills increase the portion of the exercise dedicated to armed conflict to emphasize civilian evacuations, mass casualty event response capabilities of hospitals, deployment of emergency medical aid stations, traffic control and psychological hardening, Cho was cited as saying.
All-out Defense Mobilization Director-General Liao Chien-hsin (廖建興) told the Military News Agency that the military exercises’ unscripted outcomes would dictate the conduct of civil defense drills.
Personnel involved in the exercises are not allowed to make preparations, establish stockpiles nor prepare facilities ahead of orders, to test their proficiency, he said.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) reiterated the importance of having no rehearsals prior to the civil defense exercises, adding that the Ministry of National Defense would deploy evaluator teams to grade performance in each step of the drill.
The ministry has prepared metrics to identify weaknesses and shortcomings in participants and discourage them from going through surface motions without learning the requisite skills, he said.
Although the exercises have incorporated energy and critical material shortages into its design, this year’s resilience drills do not include these matters, he added.
A ministry spokesperson said the aim of the military and civil defense exercises is to reveal flaws in the system and embed preparedness on an institutional level, not to stage a perfect show.
The armed forces, and the central and local governments must refine their ability to coordinate their activities to ensure defensive strength, they said.
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