China deploys fighter jets and bombers as Taiwan kicks off war games aimed at preparing for a Beijing invasion
- Self-ruled Taiwan has held the Han Kuang defence drills every year since 1984
- Drills now more intense than ever amid Chinese military and political pressure
- Beijing deployed large contingent of fighter jets to encircle island before drills
Taiwan kicked off large-scale war games and held air raid drills simulating its response to Chinese missile attacks yesterday, just days after Beijing sent a contingent of fighter jets and bombers to encircle the island.
Self-ruled Taiwan has held the Han Kuang defence drills every year since 1984, but this year’s war games are more intense than ever before in the face of increasing military and political pressures from China, which regards the island as its territory.
In a blatant show of force this past weekend ahead of the drills, China sent 37 aircraft and seven navy vessels around Taiwan on Friday and Saturday, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry.
Among them were J-10 and J-16 fighters and H-6 bombers, and 22 of the detected warplanes crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait – an unofficial boundary that had been considered a buffer between the island and mainland – or entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.
Now, Taiwan’s military and civilian protection organisations will conduct drills throughout the week as the self-governing island nation steels itself for invasion – but several of the planned war games will not go ahead as Typhoon Doksuri in Southeast Asia edges closer to the island.
China sent dozens of warplanes, including fighter jets and bombers, toward Taiwan, the island’s Defence Ministry said Saturday, July 22, 2023 (FILE PHOTO: Chinese J-10 fighter jets)
A view of soldiers on top of M60A3 tanks during a drill rehearsal in New Taipei City, Taiwan July 20, 2023
A soldier rappels down a Black Hawk helicopter during a drill rehearsal in New Taipei City, Taiwan July 20, 2023
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees Taiwan as a renegade province to be brought back under Beijing’s control – something the authoritarian president Xi Jinping has said he’s willing to do by force.
But Taiwan’s elected Democratic Progressive Party steadfastly argues it presides over a self-governing, democratic, capitalist society with overwhelming support from its people.
Self-ruled Taiwan holds frequent defence drills for its military, but the Han Kuang preparation efforts also extend to its civilian population, with authorities stepping up drills in cities, citing lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where the street-to-street warfare appears to be part of the defence strategy playbook.
‘Because of the ongoing Ukraine-Russian war, the importance of the drill is for our residents to know how to evacuate,’ said Tsai Yin-fong, who organised Monday’s evacuation in Taipei’s Neihu district.
Residents in seven counties across northern Taiwan were subjected to emergency scenarios as part of Taiwan’s ‘Wan An’ air defence exercises, which translates to ‘everlasting peace’.
As the sirens sounded in Neihu to signal an incoming missile attack, volunteers guided residents to nearby underground evacuation shelters, where they crouched to the ground and covered their eyes and ears.
In Taipei’s southeastern Nangang district, firefighters simulated putting out a blaze caused by a missile attack on a train station, aiming their hoses at the building, and then rescuing a civilian from it.
Government employee Wu Kai-te, who had hidden in an underground parking lot as part of the drill, said these exercises were necessary because of China’s military threats.
In Taipei’s southeastern Nangang district, firefighters simulated putting out a blaze caused by a missile attack on a train station
Rescue workers take part in an emergency response exercise for civilians, providing simulation capabilities at the tactical level of war on July 24, 2023 in Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwanese people take cover inside of a basement shelter during a Wanan air raid drill in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, July 24, 2023
‘Taiwan’s international situation is more special because of the China factor,’ the 37-year-old told AFP.
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‘It’s very practical for the public and it teaches us the right poses to take to avoid more damage during a missile attack.’
The air raid drills will continue across Taiwan until Thursday.
Taiwan’s army, navy and air force are among some of the most highly trained, technologically advanced and well equipped in the world.
But China’s massive population and vast resources mean Beijing’s military holds the advantage across every conceivable metric.
In terms of sheer numbers, China currently maintains a whopping 2 million active service personnel, far outnumbering Taiwan’s comparatively paltry 170,000-180,000 troops, according to the latest 2023 figures published by Global Firepower.
Taipei does maintain a substantial reservist force, and in December president Tsai Ing Wen announced a revamp of her country’s defence policies to extend mandatory national service and beef up military reserves amid Chinese aggression.
But Beijing’s active service personnel still outnumber Taiwan’s entire military and reserve forces combined. And of course, the CCP has more than 600 million citizens of military age, fit-for-service citizens from which it could theoretically source new troops endlessly.
In the air and sea, it’s the same story.
China’s fleet of military aircraft totals 3,166 of which more than 1,000 are dedicated fighter aircraft, while Taiwan can only muster 737 aircraft in total.
And Beijing can deploy 730 naval vessels, including two huge aircraft carriers from which they can launch aerial assaults, 78 submarines and 50 destroyers.
Taipei in comparison has just four destroyers and submarines.
A jet fighter takes off from China’s Shandong aircraft carrier, over Pacific Ocean waters, south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan, in this handout released by the Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan April 10, 2023
Air Defense and Missile Command of Taiwan Air Force takes part in a military exercise, at an undisclosed location in Taiwan in this handout picture provided by Taiwan Defence Ministry and released on April 9, 2023
Beijing’s incessant war games in the Taiwan Strait and Xi’s recent declaration that ‘China will never renounce the right to use force’ to bring the island under the control of the mainland suggest the CCP is laying the groundwork for a military operation.
‘The wheels of history are rolling toward China’s reunification [with Taiwan]’, Xi said in October at the Communist Party Congress.
And earlier this year Xi made perhaps his strongest statement yet, declaring his military must prepare for ‘real combat’ after it conducted war games in the seas around Taiwan.
China’s leader said the People’s Liberation Army, which is now the second largest force in the world, must conduct ‘military struggles firmly and with flexibility’.
‘You must strengthen real combat military training,’ he said in a statement carried by state news agency Xinhua, adding that the military must ‘resolutely defend China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime interests, and strive to protect overall peripheral stability’.
Taiwanese and US defence officials have in recent months warned they expect the PLA to be ready to launch an attack on the island well before the end of the decade.
CIA Director William Burns in February claimed US intelligence suggests Xi has instructed his country’s military to ‘be ready by 2027’ to invade Taiwan.
‘We do know, as has been made public, that President Xi has instructed the PLA, the Chinese military leadership, to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean that he’s decided to invade in 2027 or any other year as well,’ Burns told CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu have since concurred with the Director’s assessment.
But for all of Xi’s posturing and declarations that Beijing will not renounce the right to use force to ‘reunite’ the island with the mainland, China has shown in recent decades it is very reluctant to fight a war.
Beijing last engaged in a large-scale military operation in Vietnam in 1979 which failed just as the US effort had four years prior – and the CCP has plenty to lose in a war with Taiwan.
The conflict would be widely condemned by its Western trading partners, and Xi has the hindsight of watching the damaging economic response levied by Western powers on Russia following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
And launching an invasion would run the risk of triggering a military response from the only world power whose armed forces have the might to overcome the sheer size of the People’s Liberation Army – the United States.