Taiwan starts annual war games, simulating how to repel a Chinese attack

On Thursday, Taoyuan airport will close for for the drills

This handout photo taken and released on July 22, 2024 by the Taiwan Military News Agency shows Taiwanese soldiers taking part in drills during the annual Han Kuang Exercise on the Penghu Islands (Taiwan Military News Agency/AFP)

Taiwan carried out anti-landing drills on a strategic river on Monday during the start of the annual Han Kuang war games, which this year aim 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 this year have cancelled elements that were mostly for show, like scripted firepower displays, while there will be intensified nighttime 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 practiced laying mines and nets to stymie the landing of enemy forces, part of a series of drills designed to prevent the capital being seized.

“We are trying our best to slow them down as much as possible,” military office 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.

An oil drum is deployed as a blockade as soldiers on board a rubber boat patrol the Tamsui River, during a river defence exercise as part of the annual Han Kuang military drill, at Tamsui River in New Taipei, Taiwan on July 22, 2024 (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Earlier on Monday in nearby Taoyuan, outside of 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 Thursday, Taoyuan airport will close for an hour in the morning for the drills, though a typhoon is expected to be impacting the island that day meaning that the exercise could be delayed.

Taiwan‘s defence ministry also published video of air force fighter jets at the Hualien air base 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 only take place on Taiwan‘s outlying islands, including Kinmen and Matsu which sit nestled 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.

(Anadolu via Getty Images)

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, a defence official involved in the planning said.

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.

But China has also been using grey zone warfare against Taiwan, wielding irregular tactics to exhaust a foe by keeping them 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. Lai, who says only the Taiwanese people can decide their future, has repeatedly offered talks but been rebuffed.