Taiwan's new military excercise: Tabletop wargames against China

In a new, innovative approach Taiwan began its military exercises with tabletop wargames to test defence strategies against possible Chinese invasion.

The wargames involved physical maps instead of computer simulations. According to Taiwan's military, strategising with physical maps allows face-to-face brainstorming.

The war games are set to run till Friday. The annual exercise ensures all branches of the military force. In the second part, live war drills will be conducted.

Taiwan is making efforts to test its asymmetrical warfare capability as it eyes a possible clash with China in the future. 

However, China state-run Global Times however hit out against the tabletop wargames strategy calling it Taiwan's "lack of confidence" and "self-deceiving".

The Chinese newspaper declared that in every previous simulation the gap between the Chinese and Taiwan's military grew bigger. 

In fact the paper quoted experts saying the map-based simulation involved no parameter inputs, including terrain parameters, forces parameters.

Entry into the Taiwan navy's elite Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol unit or ARP, its answer to the US Navy SEALs or Britain's Special Boat Service, is not for the faint of heart.

In the event of war with China, which claims the democratic island as its own and has stepped up its military and political pressure against Taiwan, ARP frogmen could find themselves spirited across the strait in small boats under cover of night to scout enemy locations and call in attacks.

The trainers, all graduates of the same course, say the intention of the week of hell is not cruelty but to simulate the hardship of war, like extreme sleep deprivation, to see who has the stamina and guts to make it.

"Of course, we absolutely won't force anyone, everyone is here voluntarily. That's why we are so severe with them and also eliminate them strictly," said trainer Chen Shou-lih, 26. "We won't just wave you through only because you wanted to come."

China views Taiwan as part of its territory, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing's control.

Sitting on the front line between Taiwan and China, Kinmen is the last place where the two engaged in major fighting, in 1958 at the height of the Cold War, and where memories of war are burned into minds decades later - large model soldiers point guns at China from some old bunkers.

Kinmen, along with the Matsu archipelago further up the Chinese coast, has been held by the government in Taipei since the defeated Republic of China forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after loosing a civil war with the Communists.

Regular shelling did not end until December 15, 1978, when Washington formally recognised Beijing over Taipei, though by then it was shells fired on odd-numbered days carrying propaganda leaflets that fell.

A recent spike in tensions, with China's Air Force carrying out four days of mass incursions into Taiwan's air defence zone starting on October 1, caused alarm in Western capitals and Taipei that Beijing may be planning something more dramatic.

At its nearest point, from the Mashan observation post, the main island of Kinmen is at low tide less than 2km from Chinese-controlled territory. It was from there former World Bank chief economist Justin Lin swam across to defect to China in 1979.

A much-reduced military garrison remains, way down from 100,000 at the height of fighting, with tanks on occasion rumbling through back roads and soldiers guarding hidden entrances to command posts dug under the thick rock.

With new weapons, including precision missiles, any Chinese attack now would likely bypass Kinmen and go straight to military targets on Taiwan, though Kinmen, which relies on China for a stable water supply, could easily be blockaded.

A mannequin of a soldier stands inside a bunker facing Xiamen, a coastal city in China, in Lieyu Township, Kinmen, Taiwan.

The United States has sought to prevent an escalation with China, saying there was no change in Taiwan policy after President Joe Biden promised to defend the island from attack by Beijing.

Tensions have soared in recent months as Beijing steps up air incursions near Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy that China has vowed one day to take over, by force if necessary.

The United States has clarified that it was still guided by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, in which Congress required the United States to provide weaponry to "enable Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities."

A mannequin of a soldier aims in the direction of China at the coastal line of Lieyu Township, Kinmen, Taiwan.

The most dramatic air incursion by Chinese jets occurred at the start of this month as China marked its annual national day when a record 149 flights crossed into Taiwan's southwestern air defence zone in four days.

Adding aggressiveness to the incursions, some of them even got personal.

In one radio broadcast posted online by aviation fans, a Chinese pilot could be heard insulting the mother of a Taiwanese combat air traffic controller.