Taiwan Holds Annual War Exercises Copy Of Real Battle, Airport Will Close, Streets Are Empty

ILUSTRATE/PHOTO via Wikimedia Commons/Solomon203

JAKARTA - Taiwan conducted anti-landing exercises in a strategic river at the beginning of Han Kuang's annual war exercise. This year's exercise aims as close as possible to actual fighting with no scripts and simulations of how to repel Chinese attacks.

China, which views Taiwan as its territory, is conducting routine exercises around the island for four years to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing's claim to sovereignty.

Exercises in Taiwan this year have canceled elements mostly only for performances, such as weapons showes, while there will be intensive training at night and training on how to operate with a cut command line.

Starting the first day of training at Tamsui at the mouth of the big river towards Taipei, soldiers practiced setting up mines and nets to block the landing of enemy forces, part of a series of exercises designed to prevent the race for the capital.

"We are trying our best to slow them down as much as possible," the Chang Chih-pin military office told reporters, referring to a scenario in which the enemy tried to land by sending a rubber boat to the Tamsui River.

"The slower they move, the better for us," continued.

Outside Taipei, reserve forces gathered to get orders like they did during the war, and civilian vans were deployed to carry supplies.

On Thursday, July 25, Taoyuan airport will be closed for an hour in the morning for the drills, although the typhoon is expected to impact the island on that day so the drills can be postponed.

Taiwan's Ministry of Defense also published a video of air force fighter jets at the Hualien air base on the island's east coast, which has hangars made on the mountain side to protect aircraft from airstrikes.

Shooting drills will only be carried out on remote islands of Taiwan, including Kinmen and Matsu which are located next to the Chinese coast and are the scene of clashes during the peak of the Cold War.

The five-day war drills will be held simultaneously with civilian defense exercises in Wan'an, where roads in major cities are closed for half an hour during simulations of Chinese missile strikes, and test warning alarms will sound on mobile phones.

This week's training scenario includes setting up an emergency command line after existing centers were destroyed and disbanding Chinese troops trying to land on Taiwan's western coastline overlooking China, a defense official involved in the planning said.