Taiwan’s annual war games this year will use “kill” zones at sea to break a blockade and act as a model for an actual attack, according to the defense ministry’s announcement on Tuesday ( Apr 9 ).
China, which views politically governed Taiwan as its country, has been staging ordinary exercises around the area for the past four years, to force Taipei to accept Beijing’s state of sovereignty, despite Taiwan’s solid objections.
Taiwan’s key annual Han Kuang activities begin this month with table top training, which have been extended from a more conventional five times to eight given the number of scenarios, followed by real combat drills in July, according to the government.
Tung Chih- hsing, head of the ministry’s shared combat planning department, told a news briefing the drills may practise how to hastily react to one of China’s drills abruptly turning into an attack, something defense planners have begun to worry about, considering their regularity.