Taiwan starts annual war games, aiming to closely mimic actual combat

TAOYUAN, Taiwan - Taiwan carried out anti-landing drills on a strategic river on July 22 at the start of the annual Han Kuang war games, which in 2024 aims to be as close as possible to actual combat, with no script and simulating how to repel a Chinese attack.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its territory, has been staging regular exercises around the island for four years to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing’s claim of sovereignty, despite Taiwan’s strong objections.

Taiwan’s drills in 2024 have cancelled elements that were mostly for show, like scripted firepower displays, while there will be intensified night-time exercises and practising how to operate with severed command lines.

Kicking off the first day of exercises in Tamsui at the mouth of a major river leading to Taipei, soldiers practised laying mines and nets to stymie the landing of 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,” military officer Chang Chih-pin told reporters, referring to a scenario where the enemy was trying to make landfall by sending rubber boats into the Tamsui River.

“The slower they move, the better for us,” he added.

Earlier on July 22 in nearby Taoyuan, outside Taipei and home to Taiwan’s main international airport, reservists gathered to get their orders as they would during a war, and civilian vans were pressed into service to carry supplies.

On July 25, Taoyuan airport, the island’s main international airport, will close for an hour in the morning for the drills, though a typhoon is expected to impact the island that day, meaning that the exercise could be delayed.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry also published a video of air force fighter jets at Hualien Airbase on the island’s east coast, which has hangars cut out of the side of a mountain to protect aircraft from aerial attack.

Live fire drills will take place only on Taiwan’s outlying islands, including Kinmen and Matsu which sit next to the Chinese coast and were the scene of on-off clashes during the height of the Cold War.

The five-day war games will be happening in conjunction with the Wan’an civil defence drills, where the streets of major cities are evacuated for half an hour during a simulated Chinese missile attack, and test warning alarms will sound on mobile phones.

The 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 western coastline facing China, said a defence official involved in the planning.

China held two days of its own war games around the island shortly after President Lai Ching-te took office in May, saying it was “punishment” for his inauguration speech, which Beijing denounced as being full of separatist content.

It has also been using grey-zone warfare against Taiwan, wielding irregular tactics to exhaust a foe by keeping it continually on alert without resorting to open combat. This includes almost daily air force missions into the skies near Taiwan.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Mr Lai, who says that only the Taiwanese people can decide their future, has repeatedly offered talks but has been rebuffed. REUTERS