Taiwan remodels war games in the face of China’s threats

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 launched weeklong war games on July 22, altering the once-showy annual drills to reflect the “complexity and uncertainty” of the modern battlefield as it faces the threat of attack from an increasingly assertive China. Agence France-Presse

TAIPEI — Taiwan launched annual war games on Monday aiming to more realistically simulate an attack from China, dropping drills deemed to be out-of-touch with the growing threat of conflict.

Self-ruled Taiwan’s military has discarded exercises “that were more for demonstration purposes”, such as live-fire drills laid on for the media on the main island, said new Defense Minister Wellington Koo.

Officials have said such drills will now be held on Taiwan’s outlying islands, where Chinese vessels and warplanes have edged closer in recent months, and that troops would now take part in “impromptu” exercises.

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The changes come as Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has increased its military presence in the skies and waters around the island.

“Nowadays the situation is more threatened than before, so this type of public relations exercise is useless,” Ou Sifu of Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense and Security Research said of previous drills.

He said Koo “is putting pressure on our conservative military, forcing them to conduct exercises that are more realistic to actual war”.

Koo has eliminated goose-step marching and bayonet training for the military in the two months since he was appointed, saying they were ineffective in modern situations.

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Another major change for the drills is the new focus on decentralizing the command structure, which the defense ministry said would familiarize troops with “the increasing complexity and uncertainty of the battlefield”.

Participants were previously briefed on every scenario they would face but “this year the troops are not told in advance and they have to respond spontaneously,” said military expert Su Tzu-yun.

“This is more in line with the real situation,” he said, calling it “the most crucial point for the reform of Taiwan’s military”.

“It can improve the morale and self-confidence of the participating troops,” Su told AFP.

The navy conducted an “emergency departure” off the coast of Taiwan’s northern Yilan county on Monday morning as part of a rapid response exercise, the defense ministry said.

Koo, wearing military fatigues, oversaw a drill registering reservists for emergency mobilization in northern Taoyuan.

Major drills were also expected this week in eastern Hualien county, home to an airbase for fighter jets, and on the island of Penghu in the narrow waterway separating Taiwan from China.

‘Catastrophic consequences’

China has said it would never renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.

Beijing launched war games three days after President Lai Ching-te was sworn in in May as “punishment” for an inauguration speech it called a “confession of Taiwan independence”.

Chinese coast guard ships have also ramped up their presence around Taiwan’s outlying islands and Chinese aircraft are more frequently sighted near the main island, according to daily reports from Taipei.

The military could become “less sensitive” with such actions being “normalized”, said retired Major General Richard Hu.

“This ‘boiling frog syndrome’ could really trigger catastrophic consequences when (China) decides to launch its full-scale invasion of Taiwan someday in the future,” Hu told AFP.

Japan has reportedly concluded that a ground landing in Taiwan by Chinese troops would now be “possible in less than a week” instead of the previous estimate of a month.

The International Crisis Group’s Amanda Hsiao said it was “critically important” for Taiwan to accelerate its defence reforms, which would require dividing the attention of its troops between “the everyday challenges of Chinese military pressures” and a potential invasion.

“Without clarity of vision, there is the risk that Taiwan is ill-prepared to deal with both types of threats,” she said.

Asked about the war games, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said “any attempts to exaggerate tensions, seek independence by force, or resist unification by force are bound to fail”.