Taiwan to stage live-fire drill simulating China ‘invasion’

TAIPEI: Taiwan will practice thwarting a Chinese ‘invasion’ in annual live fi re drills in June, simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing, officials said yesterday.

China’s growing military is increasingly flexing its muscles and held live- fire drills last week in the Taiwan Strait — the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan — following weeks of naval manoeuvres in the area.

Chinese officials said their drills were to safeguard Beijing’s territorial sovereignty, a major priority for President Xi Jinping.

Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Cross- strait relations have steadily deteriorated since 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen took office, largely because she refuses to accept that Taiwan is part of ‘one China’, and because Beijing is deeply suspicious of her traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan’s five- day drill, codenamed ‘ Han Kuang’, which means ‘Han Glory’, will start from June 4.

“Simply put, the main goal of the drill is to make any Chinese communist military mission to invade Taiwan fail,” defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung- chi told reporters.

“It simulates this year’s situation and we are taking into consideration China’s air and naval movements in the region,” he added.

This year’s drill will enlist the coastguard and National Airborne Service Corps, which handles rescue flights, for the fi rst time for ‘comprehensive defence’, Chen said. — AFP