TAITUNG, Taiwan – Taiwan’s military on Jan 31 simulated a scenario where China suddenly turns one of its regular drills around the island into an actual attack. This was carried out on the same day that China staged another “combat readiness patrol” near Taiwan.
Taiwan, which China regards as its territory, says China’s armed forces routinely operate in the skies and seas around the island in an effort to pressure Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.
Taiwan’s defence ministry says Chinese warplanes and warships often carry out “joint combat readiness patrols”. It reported another such patrol on Jan 31, involving 22 Chinese aircraft.
In Taiwan’s exercise carried out in front of the media in its eastern county of Taitung, troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers advanced across the ground as explosions rang out, beating back a simulated invading force.
The defence ministry said the exercise “simulated the enemy military turning drills into war during joint combat readiness patrols” with “concealed people” guiding aerial strikes and commando assaults on critical infrastructure and other targets.
“The Critical Target Counter-Infiltration Drill demonstrated the results of our troops’ peacetime training,” officer Ko Ting-yi told reporters.
“In the face of increasingly frequent enemy threats, the army has continued to make breakthroughs and strengthen its training, while the troops have used realistic combat training to enhance basic combat capabilities.”
Over the past 1½ years, China has staged two rounds of major war games around Taiwan, raising fears of a conflict which could drag in the United States and its allies, especially Japan.
China practised precision strikes and blockades in drills around the island last April after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met then US House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
Taiwan’s traditional military thinking during a conflict has been to use its mountainous east coast, especially the two airbases there, as a place to regroup and preserve its forces given it does not directly face China unlike the island’s west coast.
But China has increasingly been flexing its muscles off Taiwan’s east coast, sailing warships and flying warplanes and drones there and showing its ability to operate much further away from China’s own coastline. REUTERS
