By Ben Blanchard, Yimou Lee and Ann Wang
TAIPEI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te made a late-night dash in the back of an armoured personnel carrier to a command centre as part of annual war games designed to show how the government would continue to work in the event of a war.
Taiwan kicked off the Han Kuang exercises on Wednesday. Lasting 10 days, the drills are designed to bolster preparations should China, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory, ever make good on its vow to take Taiwan by force if necessary.
The presidential office said on Thursday Lai and a group of senior officials had been taken the previous night to a command centre, and showed images of him wearing body armour and a helmet getting into the back of an armoured personnel carrier.
Lai and members of his team “conducted drills on commanding defensive operations and maintaining the continued functioning of government during emergency situations,” his spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement.
The drills were intended to review the command structure, inter-agency coordination, and emergency-response mechanisms, ensuring that the government can continue operating effectively in the face of various “unforeseen circumstances,” she added.
COLD WAR-ERA PLAN
It was the first time Lai, who took office in 2024, has taken part as president in a plan the government calls the “Wan Chun” — meaning a tremendous weight.
The plan, to evacuate Taiwan’s leader to a safe place during war or other crisis, dates back to the height of the Cold War when then-President Chiang Kai-shek lived in constant fear of attack by his arch rival Mao Zedong.
Chiang and his Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after Mao’s communists won a civil war and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China. No armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed.
Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has long worried that China could try and carry out a “decapitation” operation to take out the president and other top leaders during a war.
In 2023, during Chinese war games around Taiwan, Chinese state media said that one of the scenarios they practised was precision strikes for a “beheading” mission.
MISSILE SYSTEMS
Troops and equipment have fanned out across Taiwan in the Han Kuang drills, that are also testing new systems and tactics.
On Thursday Lai watched missile launchers being fitted on a coast guard ship, one of the Anping-class of catamarans that provides space for the weapons to be attached during war, based off the navy’s Tuo Chiang fast attack warships.
Reuters reporters also saw domestically developed Tien-Kung III surface-to-air missile systems, designed to shoot down both missiles and aircraft, deployed in Taipei near the Songshan airport and not far from the defence ministry.
In a statement on Thursday, the ministry said the exercises would “use a continuous-scenario format to sharpen units’ ability to respond in a realistic combat environment.”
Key training areas include counter-blockade and coastal strike operations, protection of critical targets and “whole-of-society support”, it added, referring to how the government is trying to get the population more broadly ready for any conflict.
Next week, Taiwan will deliberately slow mobile internet speeds for the first time, testing how citizens would communicate if bandwidth became scarce in emergencies ranging from disasters to a Chinese invasion.
China’s military, which has not yet commented on Taiwan’s war games, operates around the island on an almost daily basis.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that on Wednesday it had detected 14 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships around the island.
Beijing says Lai is a “separatist” and has rebuffed his repeated offers of talks. Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Yimou Lee and Ann Wang; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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