Taiwan to practise combating Chinese blockade in war exercise

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday (April 26) that the military of the island nation will practiseintercepting warships and combating Chinese blockade during the annual war game simulation in July.

China views Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out use of force to retake it. The democratically ruled island nation just off the Chinese coast lives under a constant threat of attack by Beijing.

Taiwan's defence ministry said that the annual "Han Kuang" (Han Glory) drills will be divided into computer war games in May and partial live-fire exercises in July. The computer war games will tackle "various possible actions of the enemy's invasion of Taiwan," according to the ministry.

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"Our scenarios are based on the enemy's current threats to invade Taiwan and its recent military exercises harassing Taiwan," Major General Lin Wen-huang told reporters when asked whether China's Shandong aircraft carrier would factor into this year's scenarios.

Shandong aircraft carrier was used in Beijing during military exercises carried out this month. The exercises involved targetted strikes and a blockade of Taiwan.

The military exercises in Taiwan would go on for five days. They will help bolster its ability to intercept China's naval and amphibious fleets, according to Major General Lin.

He said that Taiwan's military will also practise "joint anti-blockade on the main external waterways to maintain the safety of marine transportation routes and counter the enemy's blockade"

The ministry said that Taiwan took notes and incorporated lessons from the Russian invasion of Ukraine into last year's Han Kuang drills and it was planning to do so again.

Beijing's sabre-rattling has intensified in recent years.

Its most recent war games were a response to a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

On the last day of the drills, Beijing sent 54 aircraft into the island's southwestern and southeastern air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in a single day since October 2021.

In August last year, China launched its largest ever military exercises around the island last August, following a visit to Taiwan by McCarthy's predecessor Nancy Pelosi.

Taiwan and mainland China are separated by the Taiwan Strait, a narrow waterway that Beijing claims as its own.
The presence of Chinese warships and ADIZ incursions by jets has become a routine occurrence in recent years.

(With inputs from agencies)

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