Taiwan to mix war games and urban survival tests under 24/7 live fire in Han Kuang first
Taiwan 's largest annual military exercise will combine conventional war games and urban survival drills under 'unprecedented' live-fire conditions when it gets under way next week.
The move signals growing concerns in Taipei that Beijing could trigger a prolonged conflict requiring both military defence and civilian resilience.
The 41st Han Kuang exercise from July 9 to 18 would
test joint operational readiness under 'unprecedented 10-day, round-the-clock live-fire conditions', the Taiwanese defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry stated that this year's edition would incorporate the 'whole-of-society resilience' approach, introduced last year by Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te as an updated civil defence model.
The urban drills would feature air-raid warnings, mass evacuations and critical infrastructure protection across multiple regions. The aim, the ministry said, was to simulate a full-spectrum response to war – from the initial non-military 'grey zone' pressure to full attack, coastal landings, and extended urban warfare.
02:57
Shandong aircraft carrier moves into Taiwan response zone ahead of PLA drills
Shandong aircraft carrier moves into Taiwan response zone ahead of PLA drills
'Only through readiness can we preserve peace,' said Major General Tung Chi-hsing, head of the ministry's joint operations planning division, emphasising that integration of civil defence and national mobilisation was key to Taiwan's overall resilience.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
28 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
China's first home-grown carrier, Trump's shipbuilding plans: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing A new book contending that Apple went too far in consolidating its operations in China is prompting debate among analysts of the country – some of whom say the company may have had no realistic alternatives. The Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan says his country's Crossroads of Peace and China's belt and road project are interdependent. Illustration: Henry Wong Observers say the US may struggle to match China's fast-growing naval fleet and commercial shipbuilding, even with the support of Asian allies.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong visits Hong Kong
The warship's visit marks the first time one of China's fully domestically built carriers has made a call at Hong Kong.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong plans to update prison rules to better guard national security
Hong Kong's security and prison agencies plan to update the current prison rules to tighten visiting criteria for specific lawyers, doctors and chaplains to ensure they safeguard national security, prevent crime and maintain order and discipline of those behind bars. In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council on Thursday, the Security Bureau and the Correctional Services Department laid out five 'key purposes' that would form the grounds for prison staff to impose additional restrictions, conditions or prohibitions on inmates. The proposed rules would also require correctional officers to apply for court warrants to be able to restrict visits to inmates from designated lawyers and doctors on the grounds of safeguarding national security. 'There were cases in the past where the visiting mechanism was abused by some people using 'humanitarian relief' as a pretext to visit for [the purpose of] influencing persons-in-custody with soft tactics,' authorities said in the paper. However, authorities said that inmates would still be able to have access to confidential legal advice and consult other lawyers of their own choice under the new changes. Inmates could also lodge an appeal over the warrant. Government sources said that the aim of amending the prison rules through subsidiary laws would be to update 'outdated' rules and plug national security loopholes in legal and medical visit arrangements, adding that officials were keenly aware of the need to balance inmates' rights with the new restrictions.
