Taiwan is currently in the midst of the 40th edition of its annual Han Kuang war games, intended to assess its readiness to withstand a full-scale invasion from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
But amid rising cross-strait tensions, Taiwanese defence officials have said this year’s five-day military drill, which began on Monday and will finish on Friday, will be the largest-ever held and a major departure from previous iterations.
Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province of China, has responded to the January election victory of pro-independence President William Lai Ching-te by escalating provocative military exercises around the island.
Facing rising pressure, Taiwan has said this year’s games will aim to be as close as possible to real-life combat, abandoning what critics have labelled as some of the drill’s more theatrical elements.
With Typhoon Gaemi also currently battering the island, curtailing portions of the war games, Han Kuang’s 40th edition is set to be unlike any other.
Here’s everything you need to know:
What is the Han Kuang exercise?
The Han Kuang exercise has been held every year since 1984 and has historically consisted of live-fire drills and computerised war games over the course of five days. It is regarded as a display of resolve against Chinese intimidation and intended to illustrate the ability of Taiwan’s armed forces to repel invading forces.
Taking place in conjunction with Han Kuang this week is the Wanan air raid drill, an annual civilian preparedness test held across different regions of the country since 1978. During the drill, air raid sirens blare out across cities and mock SMS alerts are sent to phones nationwide warning of an imminent rocket attack and instructing citizens to seek shelter.
Taipei’s usually bustling streets were emptied of vehicles and pedestrians during Tuesday’s 30-minute drill, with stewards ushering people into subway stations and bomb shelters.
Pedestrians and motorists who failed to follow instructions faced fines of up to 150,000 New Taiwan dollars (about $4,600).
The annual Wanan air raid defense drill, a four-day nationwide drill aimed at raising public awareness of emergency response measures, was held in Taipei early Tuesday afternoon. CNA recorded the bustling city going quiet as the movements of people and vehicles were restricted. pic.twitter.com/4aOsYoK24B
— Focus Taiwan (CNA English News) (@Focus_Taiwan) July 23, 2024
How will this year be different?
In a rare appearance last month at Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu told lawmakers that this year’s Han Kuang exercises will be very different from previous years.
The first time Taiwan’s military chief of staff had addressed lawmakers in 25 years, Mei told the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee on June 26 that this year’s games would be unscripted and wouldn’t feature live-fire drills in Taiwan – though they would still be held in outlying islands.
Exercises in which soldiers play the role of enemy invading soldiers have also been scrapped. In previous years, marines and special forces had carried out landing drills and parachute jumps to simulate a Chinese invasion, but these exercises will now be held separately so these units can train for their role in defending the country.
These elements of Han Kuang have previously been criticised as being largely for show, with this year’s approach an attempt to offer greater combat realism among small dispersed units and scenarios simulating command lines being severed, Mei said.
This emphasis on decentralised command indicates Taiwan’s military leadership is finally embracing asymmetric warfare, a former top Taiwanese general has said. Asymmetric warfare is a tactic the US has advocated Taiwan adopt for years, instead of trying to match China’s military might.
“This is the first time they’re actually taking their job seriously,” Kitsch Liao, an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and an expert on the Taiwanese military, told the Financial Times. “They feel like the situation is tense enough and are not just going through the motions like Han Kuang used to in the past.”
What has prompted this change?
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence, the Rules of Engagement for this year’s games were revised following repeated incursions into the country’s air defence identification zone, a land and sea buffer area Taiwan monitors for threats by Chinese warplanes and drones.
Taiwan has complained of a sharp uptick in Chinese military activity in recent years, as Beijing seeks to intimidate the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which advocates for strengthening Taiwanese identity and regards Taiwan as an independent and sovereign nation.
A third straight victory for the DPP in January’s national election, which was described by China as “a choice between war and peace”, was met with disdain in Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party, which has cut off official communications since the DPP’s 2016 election victory, has described party leader Lai as a “troublemaker” and “dangerous separatist”.
Just three days after Lai was sworn into office in May, China launched war games simulating an encirclement of Taiwan.
Beijing said this was done as “strong punishment” for his inauguration speech, which it described as a “confession of Taiwanese independence”. For the first time, the drills simulated a full-scale attack rather than an economic blockade scenario, military experts observed.
China’s military provocation has continued since then, and on July 11, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence said it had detected the most number of PLA warplanes near the island in a 24-hour window so far this year.
How has Typhoon Gaemi impacted Han Kuang?
Gaemi made landfall in northeastern Taiwan on Wednesday evening, bringing with it heavy rain and winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour), according to Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Agency.
Gaemi, which has been upgraded to “strong typhoon” status, is the strongest storm to hit Taiwan in eight years. Offices and schools have been closed in most major cities, while most flights and trains have also been cancelled.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang told reporters that “some of the air and naval elements” of Han Kuang will be adjusted “given the typhoon situation”, but most drills are set to go ahead. Some 29,000 troops have also been put on standby for disaster relief.
事發地花蓮 靠北 … 希望後座沒人 … pic.twitter.com/wIBbyfaE4n
— 雨可韓韓 𝐘𝐮𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐧🇹🇼 (@Yucohanhan_ROC) July 24, 2024
Translation: The incident occurred in the north of Hualien … I hope there is no one in the back seat …
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