Taiwan Prepares for Potential Chinese Invasion with Largest Military Exercise

Taiwan’s largest military exercise of the year began on Wednesday (5/8), as the island seeks to prepare its population for the possibility of a Chinese invasion.

According to the AFP news agency, Taiwan’s defence officials said the annual “Han Kuang” exercise features combat scenarios for regular and reserve forces to practise responding to an attack on the island. The war exercise runs from 5 to 14 August.

Civilians will also be tested during the drills, which include a temporary slowdown of mobile internet speeds as well as air-raid exercises.

A key part of this year’s Han Kuang exercise is the decentralisation of command and control, allowing commanders and officers on the battlefield to make operational decisions without waiting for orders.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize the island of 23 million people.

Beijing has increased military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, including deploying fighter jets and warships around the island almost daily and conducting large-scale military exercises.

China’s coast guard authorities have also stepped up their grey-zone activities — actions that fall short of war — around Taiwan and its outlying islands.

On Wednesday (5/8), dozens of reserve troops deployed along the coast facing the Taiwan Strait and fired Taiwanese-made assault rifles at targets on the beach, where Chinese forces could land during an invasion.

“As CCP (Chinese Communist Party) authoritarianism continues to expand, red terror is also spreading to every corner of the world,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said at a security forum ahead of the military exercise.

“We will continue to strengthen our national defence and build whole-of-society defence and resilience,” he said.

Taiwan has increased defence spending and acquired smaller, more agile weaponry, including drones, to enable its military to wage asymmetric warfare against China.